OVERTONES
THE
CURTIS INSTITUTE
OF MUSIC
MAY 1936
OVERTONES
PUBLISHED BY
THE CURTIS INSTITUTE of MUSIC
RITTENHOUSE SQUARE
PHILADELPHIA • PENNSYLVANIA
Vol. VI— No. I May 1936
OVERTONES
ELSIE HUTT, Editor
Contents
ARTICLES
Teacher, Student, and Audience Josef Hofmann, Mus. D. 5
Poland Honors One of her Sons 8
Moments — more or less— Musical Mary Louise Curtis Bok 9
Editorial 16
One Reason Why I Go to Japan Efrem Zimbalist 17
The Current Year of The Curtis Institute 20 and 50
Samuel Barber, '33 21
Mrs. Bok Honored by the Austrian Government 26
European Audiences of Today Lea Luhoshutx. 27
Shura Cherkassky, *35 30
We Catch Up in our Reporting 32 and 58
A Gift to the English Jubilee 33
A Chamber Music Concert in Town Hall 37
The European Tours of Some Curtis Folk 38
The Curtis String Quartet 40
New Faces — and Familiar Faces in New Places 43
A Letter from Henri Temianka, '29 45
Cadenzas 47
Library Notes Sarah Hettinger 64
ILLUSTRATIONS
Josef Hofmann, Mus.D 4
Mrs. Mary Louise Curtis Bok 11
Efrem Zimbalist 17
Inros 18, 19
Samuel Barber 23
Mme. Lea Luboshutz and Eugene Helmer 28
Shura Cherkassky 31
Dr. Louis Bailly and The Curtis Chamber Music Ensemble 36
Philip Frank 38
Elizabeth Westmoreland and Irra Petina 39
The Curtis String Quartet 41
Introductory Phrase, Curtis Institute "Signature music" 50
Fritz Krueger, Charlotte Daniels, and Robert Topping 51
PcrmissioD is granted to reproduce parts of this magazine provided due acknowledgement is made to Ovirtones. Copyright 1936 by The Curtis
Institute of Music. Printed in The United States of America.
{3}
Photograph by Albirt Pttmm
JOSEF HOFMANN. Mus.D.
Director and Dean of The. Curtis Institute of Music
by JOSEF HOFMANN, MUS.D.
IT USED to be that concert artists dreaded teaching as a comparatively
colorless occupation that clipped the wings, devitalized art, and
stultified performance. They dreaded it in spite of the examples of Liszt
and Rubinstein, the two great artist-teachers of the past, and later
Busoni, all of whom, alternately concertizing and teaching, were living
refutations of this theory.
But teaching is a duty that the concert artist should fulfill. The
great store of theories and principles evolved thru the ages and handed
down from master to pupil must be preserved in each rising generation
in order that this sacred fire may be kept burning. Tradition must not
die! The concert artist who brings something of value to his audiences
is himself establishing tradition, and so has a double obligation to
teach, since otherwise that tradition would perish as soon as he stopped
playing or singing. Thru teaching we assure a sort of eternal life for our
art, which should mean much to any artist worthy of the name.
Happily, the old attitude toward teaching has changed. Today
many artists are teaching, and I am sure they can say as I do, emphati-
cally: There is absolutely nothing to fear.
As a matter of fact, the concert artist should welcome teaching. It
will enrich his life, and, life and his art being to him synonymous, it
follows that his art, far from suffering, will benefit therefrom. Teach-
ing clarifies many things in the teacher's mind, things that have be-
come second-nature, that he does by instinct or habit, and has long
since stopped thinking about. In resurrecting these things from the far
places of his mind for the benefit of his pupils, the teacher is forced to
think anew about these matters, to analyse and to reason; he discovers
new material therein, and opens in himself the way for new thinking,
mw ideas, and new development. The teacher also learns and receives
{5}
OVERTONES
inspiration from his pupils (providing they are good pupils!), which
perhaps is why great artists accept only students who are gifted ; a selfish
reason, but justified since in any event a vessel cannot be expected to
receive more than its capacity and a great artist has much to give.
And now, a word to students.
Music expresses moods : dramatic, tragic, heroic, lyric, or humorous.
These moods, that primarily are the composer's, the performer must
find and strive to interpret. This is not merely a matter of observing
fortes, pianissimos, crescendos .diminuendos , and so on; the trained musician
does not need these marks — he will show them nevertheless in execu-
tion, just as a person instinctively pauses in the right places when
reading a telegram, emphasizing a word or a phrase according to its
importance. One must perform music with both one's heart and one's
mind.
Students should strive to acquire a mental acoustic picture of the
music they wish to play, rather than merely a memory of how their
fingers move or how the notes look on the page. Such a mental acoustic
picture is the most reliable form of memory and has also the further
advantage of enabling one to "practice" anywhere and at any time.
One can "play" whole pieces mentally while walking down the street,
eating breakfast, or lying in bed. This power of mental practice is ex-
ceedingly valuable to the performer.
In preparing for public appearance, the most important thing to do
is to play as often as possible before others, informally and privately.
It does not matter who it is that listens, nor what the degree of the
listener's musical knowledge happens to be. Robert Schumann once
said that if you have no one else to perform to, you should ask your
cook to come into the living room while you play. Another prominent
musician of the past observed that even the presence of a dog or a cat
in the room changed the mental process of concentration. It is neces-
sary to accustom oneself to the feeling of having listeners. A student
practices, and over the piano hangs, we shall say, a picture of his
grandmother. He looks at it as he works, and soon he has a mental
conception of the music plus his grandmother. Then someone takes the
picture away; the student feels that something connected with his
performance is missing and becomes disturbed. One day someone enters
<6>
OVE RTO N E S
the room while the student is playing. Instantly there is a difference!
Another time he is playing and someone in the room changes his posi-
tion, sneezes, gets up, goes out. One must acquire indifference to what
is, or is not, in the room, and immunity to the shiftings of one's audi-
ence; and so, for the student, the more changes there are in both the
better it is, the more practice he will have in maintaining his balance
against distraction. This is why we have the Concert Course at The
Curtis Institute — to teach students to express themselves in various
environments and before audiences of all sorts of potentialities, as well
as before their grandmothers' portraits.
On the day of a concert, a splendid thing to do is to isolate oneself
for a time just before one has to begin the performance. Music is a form
of speech, there is a narrative to be told, and consequently one must be
in a condition to pour it out; one must not be pumped dry before one
begins. When a painter wishes to paint a picture, his canvas must be
clean to receive and faithfully portray only the lines, forms, and colors
which the painter places thereon; when a musician is to give a concert,
his mind must be clear in order that it may hold only the music which
he is later to perform. When I am to play a recital I want my ' 'canvas"
first to be blank. For several hours before a concert I do not say a word;
my family and everyone about me understand this, and I am never
disturbed. With my canvas clean, I paint on it nothing but the mental
acoustic pictures of my program, and go to the concert platform feeling
the positive need of expression at the piano.
Then I play.
{7>
alanJi ^:^H-o^nat^ K^^nc ar c^t'tcx c:^^^^
THE Director of The Curtis Institute of Music was decorated by the
Polish Government in October 1935 with the Order of Polonia
Restituta in the rank of Commander. The presentation took place at the
Ministry of Education, Warsaw, before a distinguished group of people,
Konstanty Chylinski, the Minister of Education, conferring the decora-
tion upon Dr. Hofmann.
This is an unusual distinction since the rank of Commander in the
Order generally is reserved for persons in the diplomatic, military, or
official service of the Polish Government. Dr. Hofmann is the only
musician to have received this honor in recognition of his art.
Dr. Hofmann was born in Poland. He became a naturalized citizen
of the United States in 1926.
The University of Pennsylvania conferred upon the Director of The
Curtis Institute the honorary degree of Doctor of Music in 1933-
{8>
by MARY LOUISE CURTIS BOK
SOMETIMES as I sit alonc and quietly (and now and then I really do)
there pass before my mental eyes a veritable kaleidoscope of pictures
— some grave, some gay, some funny, some very sweet, one or two
momentous. Being modern in concept, they are motion pictures.
They were all taken at or near The Curtis Institute of Music, and
they have much to do with Youth.
One often comes to my mind. It is the picture of one of our most
engaging young students, particularly my first meeting with the boy.
He came to us upon the recommendation of one of the teachers, who
had heard him play somewhere in Europe. Coming directly from
Hungary to the United States, N6-Bore knew very little of the English
language. He was about sixteen years of age, blond, with an appealing,
angelic expression upon his round, youthful face. A ripple of agita-
tion ran thru the feminine part of the school from the day he first
entered it. Practically every girl loved him at first sight! We all did
— we still do, altho he is now grown up and a concertizing artist in
Europe and we must love him at a distance.
One day shortly after No-Bore's arrival I came face to face with
him for the first time in the Dean's office. I advanced toward him
with my hand outstretched to greet him, and said "Surely this must
be No-Bore!" He bowed solemnly. Feeling I should enlighten him,
I gave my name, whereupon a stricken look came into that youthful
face. One could see the mental struggle for the proper words. In a
flash he found them. Taking my hand and raising it to his lips, he
bowed again, profoundly, and said — firmly — "Good mght!^' . . .
Of course I often eat at the drug store on the corner. That rendez-
vous is almost an annex of the school ! Seated one day on a stool at the
counter, I found myself beside the policeman who so zealously guards
our property besides attending to his onerous duties at the intersection.
<9>
OVE RT O N E S
He was very polite, and we discoursed of the sin and pity of city
government's being ruled by mere politics. Somehow our conversation
worked around to more personal matters, and I confided to him that
I was often too busy to eat. This seemed to startle him. Most earnestly
he said "Oh, that ain't right! You must eat!" . . . Perhaps I should.
Most certainly I would if I stood at that corner directing traffic eight
hours a day!
The next picture is one of peculiar poignancy to me. . . . We are
in Casimir Hall. We have had a present. My father, whose name
the Institute bears, has given us a pipe organ, and we are to dedicate
it this evening. With much difficulty I have persuaded the dear donor
to come out with his daughter on the stage. Clearly, I see him still
as he was that evening — the live little figure, with its crown of white
hair and snapping brown eyes. Restless movements. Fearful lest his
daughter hand him a bouquet.
We cannot be formal. My own heart is quite too full and his nature
quite against it. So I just tell the students all about it. How, before
my last birthday, my father had asked what present he could give me
and when I had suggested the organ he had smiled with positive
delight and said he would love to do just this. I then tell the students
I want the first hands laid upon that organ to be my father's and say
that he will play a little for them.
Such a protesting little man! He too appeals to the students. Tells
them that his daughter is given to exaggeration and that he is no
musician anyway.
And then I hurry him down to the organ seat and in his own
inimitable way he gives us a short but thoroly musical improvisation.
... I like to think he was as happy that evening as we all were.
I have many pictures of our Christmas parties and wonder if others
remember as I do one unvarying feature of them for so many years. I
always thought it so gracious of Madame Sembrich to have sent us
as her contribution a prodigal lot of the choicest chocolates and bon-
bons. These were always spread out in dishes upon a side table, with
a figure of Santa Claus, about twelve inches high, and a hand-written
notice that these sweets were sent as her personal Christmas gift to
the students.
{ 10 >
P holograph by Aibtrt Pilirim
MRS. MARY LOUISE CURTIS BOK
Founder and President of The Curtis Institute of Music
OVE RTO N E S
And will any of us who saw it ever forget Gary Bok's introducing,
at a Christmas party, on the stage in Casimir Hall, the huge little
girl who wore a pink ribbon in her yellow curls and clasped a doll?
Who could the big child be? Mr. Bok announced that it was a new
student, just arrived from darkest Poland, and that she would now
play to us.
Little "Ruth" sat down at the piano, and played none too well.
She fussed about a good deal, she made little mistakes. There were
lapses. . . . She broke down! Whereupon Mr. Bok smiled reassuringly
and said "Now, Ruth, show us how you can play after having been
eighteen months at The Curtis Institute."
And then big little "Ruth" broke into the Chopin Polonaise
Militaire, playing with the tone, big sweep, fire, and perfection that
we know is the unique possession of — our Director! . . . Pandemonium
in the audience!
One picture is entitled "An Appeal to the Mayor" and is in cor-
respondence form. You may read the three letters for yourselves.
THE CURTIS INSTITUTE OF MUSIC
RiTTENHOUSE SqUARE
Philadelphia
24 October 1933
My dear Mr. Mayor:
I am in a quandary and am wondering if you can advise me.
It does sound amusing, but actually it is far from being
amusing to students and teachers at The Curtis Institute of
Music to be afflicted with hurdy-gurdies playing merrily in our
neighborhood during the hours our school is in session. For us
to pay them to move on is to invite more frequent musical street
performance.
May we properly request such policemen as happen to be
about to ask the hurdy-gurdy men not to play under the
windows of The Curtis Institute of Music at Eighteenth and
Locust Streets?
With cordial greeting, I am
Sincerely yours
Qsigned^ Mary Louise Curtis Bok
The Honorable Mr. J. Hampton Moore
Mayor of Philadelphia
<12>
OVE RTO N E S
CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
Office of the Mayor
October 25, 1933
Mrs. Mary Louise Curtis Bok
The Curtis Institute of Music
Rittenhouse Square
Philadelphia
Dear Mrs. Bok:
I dislike very much to learn from your letter of the unseemly
rivalry that appears to have been set up against The Curtis
Institute of Music; and in the spirit in which you wrote agree
that there should be no unfair blending of the melodies.
I will call the attention of the Department of Public Safety
to the condition you refer to and see if it can not be abated.
Very truly yours
(jigned)]. Hampton Moore
THE CURTIS INSTITUTE OF MUSIC
Rittenhouse Square
Philadelphia
27 October 1933
My dear Mr. Mayor:
It is awfully good of you to reply so promptly about the
hurdy-gurdies and in so understanding and delightful a manner.
If the relief can be effected, there will be a greater degree of
harmony, at least within doors, at Eighteenth and Locust
Streets, from now on.
With many thanks to my father's old friend, I am
Sincerely yours
(jigne£) Mary Louise Curtis Bok
The Honorable Mr. J. Hampton Moore
Mayor of Philadelphia
Once, as I was going up the front steps of the school, the big door
opened and a small boy carrying a roll of music emerged. I recognized
him as a very talented youngster, so greeted him by name, and said
"Will you play for me some day soon?" "No," was the instant reply.
"No? And why not?", I queried. "Because I'm not ready," he
answered. He was polite, but so definite that I paused, interested.
{13}
OVE RTO N E S
"Well," I went on, "when will you play for me?" And that child
with the single-track mind answered "When I am ready!' ^ . . .
Now I come to a picture for which I must give a preface — a Lead-
ing Tone, as it were — with a satisfying Tonic resolution.
It may be interesting to those who see The Curtis Institute as it is
today to know what parts of its present structure are the unique con-
tribution of Josef Hofmann, now its Director.
When I asked him if he would assume the office it was two years
before he consented, and during this time he put much thought and
study on the problem of the school. He had been associated with it
from its founding, as head of the Piano Department and a teacher
himself in that Department.
One of the first questions Josef Hofmann put to himself and to me
was: What should be the purpose of this school? The answer, in his
own words, has ever since been printed in our catalog: fo hand down
thru contemporary masters the great traditions of the past — to teach students
to build on this heritage for the future. This might well be called the
Creed of The Curtis Institute.
The purpose defined, Josef Hofmann turned his attention to methods
whereby such a purpose could be achieved. When he assumed the
Directorship, there was a student body numbering 229- Josef Hofmann
has all his life believed in Quality as against Quantity, and he decided
almost at once that if Quality was to rule at The Curtis Institute it
was of primary importance that the number of students be — not
increased — but reduced. He began immediately to work toward the
goal of a smaller and better school, retaining only those students who
seemed most promising and keeping constant watch over the latent
artistic quality of the student body — a policy that has remained his
ever since.
He next pointed out to me the need for students to have the use
oi good instruments in their homes for practice. I saw there was little
use of school lessons if home practicing conditions were inadequate.
Accordingly the Institute purchased Steinway pianos and other instru-
ments to lend to students in need of them, without charge, and this
is still the policy of the school.
< 14 >
OVE RT O N E S
He instituted public appearance for students during their school
years, believing that young artists should acquire ease and self-
possession thru public performance and be allowed to make their mis-
takes in order to correct them while in the more or less obscure role
of student.
He advocated summer study with teachers, not at the school but
wherever the teachers might be, the summer lessons to be confined to
a two-month period and to be available only to students of outstanding
quality.
Thus Josef Hofmann shaped our school, but the most far-reaching
change was one he suggested to me during the first year he was
Director. It is this picture I want to present to our students.
At this time there was a charge for tuition — five hundred dollars per
year — tho few students paid it in full. . . . We were having tea
together, the Director and I, and there was an unwonted eagerness
about him. He talked rapidly, a little anxiously, and as if something
within his mind had recently clarified, crystallizing into a conviction.
"I have a proposition to make to you," he said, "but I don't
know how it will strike you." "Let's hear it," I said, and added
"Is it so revolutionary?"
"Yes, it is," he replied. He hesitated, then went on with a mount-
ing eagerness. "Why these tuition fees? Practically no one can pay
them in full. With conditions as they are now there is an inequality
of circumstance amongst the students: one pays less, or more, than
another, and word of it gets around somehow; it creates an un-
fortunate atmosphere because something, under it all, doesn't ring
true. Why any tuition fees? There is an endowment. What would
you think of abolishing tuition fees altogether? Then there would be
some pure, fresh air thru these rooms and halls. The students would
know that only their work is of value here, and that all are on an
equal footing."
He was eloquent in pleading the cause of the students, and I knew
at once that he was right. Free tuition, from then on, has been a
prime policy of The Curtis Institute of Music.
<15>
i^^ditatiai
WITH THIS ISSUE, OvERTONEs again makes its bow before the public,
after an absence of nearly four years.
The prime tone of the past few years is too familiar to everyone to
bear more than passing reference. We are a bit tired of alarums, and
more than a bit tired of talk about them.
But of late, as we have continued to listen, it has seemed that the
color of the note has changed.
Whether in truth the note does possess a different quality, or
whether the difference lies in the way in which we are listening, we
cannot tell. Like the lady who did not know art but knew what she
liked, we may not know whether the present economic situation is
good or bad, we only know that the sound of things is now more to
our liking.
Upon such profound matters we are happy indeed not to be obliged
to discourse. And in any event — we are concerned with overtones.
It may not be amiss to recall the purposes of Overtones. There is
nothing unique in an institution's preserving for its own needs and
reasons, in some form or other, the facts relating to its progress.
Overtones not only records all sorts of data concerning The Curtis
Institute of Music but endeavors to give to the public a picture of the
school, its activities, its personalities, its achievements, and its aims.
In addition to this two-fold object. Overtones is a secondary
medium of expression for the busy group of artists whom The Curtis
Institute looks upon as its own — the faculty, and the rising generation
of musicians being nurtured within its walls. Overtones is a ready
means of giving to the public their thoughts, convictions, and theories,
and of recording for posterity the experiences, lessons, and achieve-
ments of their professional life.
And if Overtones be also an occasional revelation of the lesser
known and lighter facets of their makeup — so much the more to our credit !
{ 16 >
One iZ,^
ea^an^
yui.^ J g.
ta japan
by EFREM ZIMBALIST
Photograph hy Albirt Pitersen
OF ALL the important masters and schools of the different branches
of art the least known on the European and American con-
tinents are those that created the inro many centuries ago in Japan.
Certainly one finds intelligent collectors here and there but nevertheless
the general public is quite unaware of the existence of these works
of art and of their beauty, and of the imagination and extraordinary
skill involved in their creation. When I first went to Japan in 1921
I became enamoured with this little gem of art and conceived a pro-
found admiration for the artists who created it.
The inro is a small medicine container consisting of from one to
seven chambers strung together on a cord. The average dimensions
are from three to four inches in height, two to three inches in width,
and about three-quarters of an inch in depth. There are inros of much
larger size that may have been used by actors or by priests.
The majority of mros were of wood decorated altogether or mainly
with lacquer, but other materials were also used especially in later
periods of the art, such as various metals, ivory, tortoise shell, porce-
lain, semi-precious stones, etc., etc.
07>
OVE RTO N E S
Emphasis must be laid upon the extreme accuracy with which the
separate compartments were fitted together, making the divisions al-
most invisible. A higher degree of workmanship is required in this
respect than anything in the way of wood work that has ever been
art reaches perfection,
ing the inro is of consid-
zawa Ariyoshi mentions
list of objects that the
in the year Engi Fifth
indication of their shape.
inro in its present form we
(A. D. 1596), in which
of from two to six
ly found to bear the sig-
first great artist in this
initely known is Seki-
about 1624-1643. He
lacquer. Of the other
great masters there are Korin, Ritsuo, Hanzan, Kenya, Yamamoto
Shunsho, Shiomi Masanari, Kajikawa Kinjiro, Tatsuke Chohei, and
the famous Koma family who from 1681 to 1847 held the official post of
lacquer artist to the Shogun.
I have some inros and seldom can resist the temptation to add to
my collection. Inros, however, do not grow upon the cherry trees,
nor yet are they to be found in the dealers' shops. Making the delight
of finding one all the greater.
done, and in the inro this
The practice of carry-
erable antiquity. Kuma-
"medicine bags" in the
Emperor Daigo ordered
(A. D. 905) but gives no
A definite reference to the
find in the Keicho Period
period the inro is made
compartments.
Fine inros are frequent-
nature of the artist. The
field whose name is def-
no-Socho who worked
used to sign his pieces in
Inro — opened
{ 18 >
OVE RTO N E S
Inros from the collection of Marquis Tokugawa
now in the collection of Mr. Zimbalist
{ 19 >
THE Curtis Institute of Music began its twelfth season September 30,
1935, with an enrollment of 159, which figure has remained fairly
stable thruout the year. Italy, Canada, Cuba, and Mexico are repre-
sented in the student body, besides twenty-six states of the United
States, and the District of Columbia.
The summer had passed with, for many of the students, continued
study, rehearsals, and professional appearances. An eight-week period
of lessons in each major subject had been scheduled.
Early each season student concert activity gets under way, with the
radio concerts and the Concert Course beginning in October, and each
year special events of some kind or other taking place outside the Insti-
tute to prepare for.
Twenty-six radio concerts were scheduled, for Wednesday after-
noons thru the school year. Regular concerts by the Curtis Symphony
Orchestra and by chamber music groups have featured the broadcasts,
with woodwind ensembles, harp ensembles, and solo performances
rounding out the series, every department in the school being repre-
sented. Unusual works were given by the Orchestra under Mr. Reiner's
direction, such as the Marche from the Karelia Suite of Sibelius, the
"Weinen, Klagen" Variations on a theme of Bach by Liszt as orches-
trated by Leo Weiner, and Debussy's Danse in the Ravel orchestration;
the ballet-suite from Cephale et Procris by Andre Ernest Modeste Gretry,
the overture to Auber's Masaniello, Bernardino Molinari's orchestra-
tion of Paganini's Moto Perpetuo, and the Semiramide overture (Rossini).
Such works as the Johan Svendsen Qiiintet (string), the Faure piano
Quartet, a string Quintet by Vitold Josefovitch Malichevsky, the Bach
D minor Concerto for piano and strings, and the Beethoven E-flat Septet
were represented in the chamber music programs given under Dr.
Bailly. Woodwind ensembles directed by Mr. Marcel Tabuteau played
Richard Strauss's Serenade in E-flat, the third and fourth movements
from a Sextet by Ludwig Thuille, and other works. An interesting pro-
gram was one in which the organ and the harp ensemble collaborated,
giving Bach's Sixth French Suite for seven Harps, Debussy's Clair de
Continued on page ;o
< 20 >
s.
aHtu.e
ataety 33
WINNER of the Rome and the Pulitzer music prizes in the same
year! And now he is in Italy, a land well known to him from
previous visits — his most intimate friend, a former classmate at The
Curtis Institute, is an Italian, his "maestro," Rosario Scalero, also —
he is in Italy, at the American Academy in Rome, "writing a lot of
new music." Our best wishes and most affectionate thoughts to Sam
Barber !
Merely the situation of the Academy is a pleasure to him— "high
on the Janiculum, with Rome at one's feet, and a beautiful walk on the
heights across to Saint Peter's."
After a swift job of orientation, this son of The Curtis Institute is
thoroly at peace with himself as an integral part of the Academy
and with his neighbors. Director Aldrich and the other Fellows, and
the many members of his profession and others whom he is meeting.
The names Pirandello, Casella, Moravia, Malipiero, de Luca, Serafin,
Cecchi spring from the pages of his letters. He seems to have been
swung into a rapid procession of amusing and thrilling experiences.
He writes of "a day at Tivoli, where by chance a crowd of peasants
from the Abruzzi mountains came to do the most extraordinary dances
to the music of bag-pipes: in costumes of exquisite colors, and for no
audience at all, merely for their own pleasure"; "lessons twice a week
in Dante — my teacher comes to my studio and we read aloud by the
fire ... we finished the Inferno today" (a fortnight later he is writing
that "next week . . . Dante and I arrive in Paradise"); a "chance to
stroll around in the lovely gardens of the Villa Aurelia, where the
Aldriches live; my studio is a little yellow house, approached from the
garden by a winding stair."
By January 15th he had composed seven new songs and sung three
of them, first at an evening devoted to new music by young composers
{11}
O VE R T O N E S
when Casella made him give The Beggar s Song a second singing, again
at luncheon at Prince Bassiano's where there was a gathering of the
younger Roman painters and composers.
By the end of February he had finished his first Symphony.
But perhaps his most interesting experience, of which he writes
glowingly, has been "going up on the temporary ^scaffolding they
have in the Sistine Chapel and lying on my back for hours, six feet
from Michelangelo's frescoes," in company with a few painters who
obtained special permission for this scrutiny aloft. "To see these
figures," he writes rapturously, "as close-ups! To live with them! The
wonderful Sybill seen close! A new conception: I cannot tell the im-
pression it made on me, for these sensations are like secrets to be
guarded jealously all one's life-time, great and magnificent secrets."
Barber's vivid appreciation of beauty, quick perception, and keen
reactions, the depth of his feeling, and the happy spirit permeating all
this, the very qualities that endeared him to his teachers and fellow
students, must surely be responsible in large measure for the early suc-
cesses he has reaped, and with the maintaining of a fine balance such as
we dare to wager on, knowing our young man, thru the somewhat
heady events that are crowding upon him, who can say what future
glories will cover this disciple of The Curtis Institute?
Presented by Dr. Carl Engel on February 4, 1935, to the radio audi-
ence of the United States, in a program consisting entirely of his own
music, Samuel Barber won instant recognition as a triplefold musician
— composer, singer, and pianist. The full hour broadcast was one of the
National Broadcasting Company's Music Guild series and was, accord-
ing to Dr. Engel, "an event of considerable musical importance." The
program consisted of Serenade (played by the Curtis String Quartet),
"Dover Beach, ' ' a setting for baritone or mezzo-soprano voice and string
quartet of Matthew Arnold's poem (performed by the composer and
the Curtis String Quartet), and a Sonata for Violoncello and Piano.
Later, on March 19th, Mr. Barber sang again in the Music Guild hour.
'The cracks that have been appearing in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are the cause of considerable
alarm. The scaffolding was erected for the purpose of studying the situation at dose range. Ed.
{11}
OVERTONES
SAMUEL BARBER
al the Villa Menotti. Cadigliano, Italy, in the summer of 1933
On Sunday afternoon, March 24th, in Carnegie Hall, New York
City, the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York with Werner
Janssen performed Mr. Barber's Musk for a Scene from Shelley for the first
time anywhere.
Shortly after this, Mr. Barber won the Pulitzer and the Rome prizes.
The winners of the Rome Fellowships were announced by radio on the
evening of May 9th. Deems Taylor made the announcements, and again
a full hour on the air was devoted to Mr. Barber's music.
The house of Schirmer (New York) is publishing a number of the
Barber works. Many of these have been performed repeatedly on this
and the other side of the Atlantic. The overture to ''The School for
Scandal,'' which won for its composer the 1933 Bearnes prize, was
played for the first time in public by the Philadelphia Orchestra, in
Robin Hood Dell, August 31, 1933- A recent performance was that by
Eugene Ormandy and the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra over the
NBC network on February 20, 1936. The "Dover Beach" setting was
first performed in public in New York City March 5, 1933, by Rose
Bampton and the New York Art Quartet, in a concert given by the
{23>
O VE R T O N E S
League of Composers. Among numerous subsequent performances of
this work was the one at the London home of the Viscount and Vis-
countess Astor on June 25, 1935, by Miss Bampton and the Curtis
String Quartet, which was followed on June 30th by a radio perform-
ance at the invitation of the British Broadcasting Corporation, by the
same artists. The Serenade for string quartet also was performed at Lady
Astor's on the same occasion. The Violoncello Sonata was given its
first public performance at the League of Composers concert afore-
mentioned. The Sonata for Violin and Piano won for Mr. Barber his first
Bearnes prize, in 1929. The songs '' Bessie Bobtail,' ' '^ Daisies, '^ "Dance,"
and "With Rue 7ny Heart is Laden" were sung at the concert at Lady
Astor's that we have mentioned, "Daisies" and "Dance" in the British
broadcast already spoken of.
The Shelley music was composed during a visit to Gian-Carlo
Menotti in Cadigliano, in 1933, where a year earlier Barber had com-
posed his 'Cello Sonata. The Shelley music was suggested by the lines
(Act II, Scene 5) in Prometheus Unbound, which demand music —
(Panthea to Asia):
"... nor is it I alone,
Thy sister, thy companion, thine own chosen one.
But the whole world which seeks thy sympathy.
Hearest thou not sounds i' the air which speak the love
Of all articulate beings? Feelest thou not
The inanimate winds enamoured of thee?
List!"
[Music]
While in Vienna in 1934, Mr. Barber made a collection of seven-
teenth- and eighteenth-century songs, many of which he copied from
manuscripts in the Vienna libraries.
When singing he often plays his own accompaniments, .even in
public. As to this feat, he adores doing it, saying he sings better that
way, and since being in Rome has memorized all the Dichterliebe of
Schumann, both words and accompaniments, as a sort of recreation —
Barber makes no bid for public performance.
Mr. Barber also has composed music for Mary Kennedy's play One
Day of Spring which was given its first performance in the Annie Russell
Theatre at Winter Park, Florida, January 24, 1935-
< 24 >
O VE R T O N E S
Mr. Barber's compositions (up to February 1936):
Sonata for Violin and Piano (1928)
Serenade, for String Quartet (1928)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1930)
"Dover Beach," for Voice and String Quartet (1931), and for Voice and Piano
(1935); published by G. Schirmer, Inc., New York
Overture to "The School for Scandal" (1932); distributed by G. Schirmer, Inc.,
New York (Schirmer Orchestra Rental Library)
Sonata for Violoncello and Piano (1932); published by G. Schirmer, Inc., New
York
Music for a Scene from Shelley (1933); study score published by G. Schirmer,
Inc., New York
Symphony in E minor (1935-36)
Piano pieces
Choral works
Carillon pieces; published in part by G. Schirmer, Inc., New York
Songs
(The songs "Daisies," "With Rue my Heart is Laden" "Bessie Bobtail," and
"The Beggar's Song," and a four-part chorus for women's voices a capella,
"The Virgin Martyrs," have been accepted for publication by G. Schirmer,
Inc., New York.)
As we go to press it is announced that Samuel Barber has been
awarded the 1936 Pulitzer prize in music. The Columbia University
Department of Music breaks a precedent in this, since never before has
the award been given twice to the same musician. It is the second
consecutive year that Mr. Barber has received this prize.
05>
bu tke <=:^itst'cLan ^^ ovetttment
ON December 30, 1935, the founder and President of The Curtis
Institute of Music, Mrs. Mary Louise Curtis Bok, received the
Knight's Cross, First Class, of the Austrian Order of Merit, from His
Excellency The Honorable Edgar L. G. Prochnik, Austrian Minister
to the United States. The decoration was conferred at the direction of
the Federal President of Austria.
The presentation was made at the Legation in Washington, with
a luncheon afterwards for Mrs. Bok.
Austria is not the first foreign country to honor Mrs. Bok. Poland,
in 1931, gave her the Order of Polonia Kestituta.
In her own country Mrs. Bok has been honored by the University
of Pennsylvania with the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, and
by Williams College with the degree of Doctor of Music.
{ 26 >
by LEA LUBOSHUTZ
I HAVE just returned from a concert tour thru Europe where I fulfilled
engagements in England, Holland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithu-
ania, Poland, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, and France.
While musical life is very intense in these countries, it was interesting
to observe the difference of standards and opinions of the musicians,
as well as the likes and dislikes of the public in the various lands. In
England, Bach and Beethoven seem to enjoy the greatest vogue and
there is scarcely an orchestra or solo concert where their master works
are not performed. The audiences are most critical and the performances
have to be of the very highest order. In London, I had the pleasure of
meeting my old friend and former colleague, Carl Flesch, whose per-
formance of the Beethoven Concerto is always a great event there.
It was an experience for me to go by plane from London to Amster-
dam, for it was the first time I had flown, and I was elated over it. The
airfield in Amsterdam is a veritable meeting place of the nations, and I
was very pleased to encounter Adolph Busch, the distinguished German
violinist, whose plane landed the same time as mine, coming from a
different direction. We had a most interesting conversation about music
and musicians.
My next stop was Sweden. This country seems very prosperous and
wide awake, with beautiful concert halls and most responsive audi-
ences. There I saw Mary Wigman and her group perform.
In order to reach Finland, my accompanist and I had to board an
ice breaker, as the sea was completely frozen. I hadn't played in Fin-
land since before the Russian Revolution, when it was a Russian pos-
session, and I was surprised to see how completely the Russian influ-
ence has vanished. Altho there are now many foreign members in the
excellent orchestra in Helsingfors, they are mostly French and Italian.
It was a pleasure to find Mr. Schneevoigt, with whom I had performed
in Finland many years ago, at the helm of the orchestra. They are still
{11 \
O V E R T O N E S
very fond of Russian music in
Sibelius's country and insisted
upon my playing Tschaikow-
ski's Violin Concerto with the
orchestra. Living is inexpen-
sive and musicians lead very
happy and comfortable lives in
Finland.
There were great celebra-
tions on my arrival in Estonia,
tho not on my account ! It was
the anniversary of their Inde-
pendence Day. What a color-
ful spectacle, with everybody
turned out in full regalia ! Thru
Latvia and Lithuania, I arrived
eventually in Poland, which is
very dear to me because it was
in Warsaw I made my debut
under Arthur Nikisch and also
played often under my dear teacher, £mil Mlynarski. It was in the
same auditorium with the same orchestra that I performed this time.
While in Warsaw, I heard Prokofieff perform his newest Piano Concerto
under Fitelberg. I learned with great interest that he had just com-
pleted his second Violin Concerto.
Then came sunny Budapest, the city I like best of all. Here it seems
that love of music is most widely disseminated. For the first time I
heard the famous gypsy orchestras, which have been praised highly
by so many musicians. Their perfection surpassed all my expectations.
I was especially amazed by the famous Magyars' inimitable style of
playing. It was a great pleasure to see again my dear friend, Ernst von
Dohnanyi. Altho Bartok and Kodaly have a very strong following in
Budapest, works of Mozart and Beethoven still remain the favorite
fare of the public.
In Vienna it was natural that I should go to the opera, where a
Mme. Lea Luboshutz and her accompanist. Eugene Helmer.
graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music,
arriving in Budapest
{ 28 >
OVE R T O N E S
superb performance of Kosenkavalier was given. Here I had also the
pleasure of seeing again my old friend, Moriz Rosenthal.
My next stop was Prague, and then Paris on the way home. Musical
life in Paris was quite a change after Budapest and Vienna, for music
does not seem to have the same importance in the French capital.
Perhaps it isn't fair to make such a statement, however, since I had
barely forty-eight hours to spend in France before I boarded my ship
for America.
{ 29 }
d-^/f^t^ ^ke^kci^^ku^ 33
THE artistic reputation of Shura Cherkassky has been growing apace.
Early in 1935 this pianist received a contract from the Soviet Gov-
ernment to give a number of concerts in Russia. In February he left, but
not before giving a recital in Town Hall, New York City, on the 9th.
The Russian tour consisted of concerts in Moscow, Leningrad,
Kharkov, and Odessa, his birthplace, and an appearance with the
Leningrad Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. Cherkassky also visited
other parts of Russia as a tourist, being greatly interested in the present
development of his native country.
He returned to the United States with another big tour ahead of
him. While in Finland he had learned he was booked for concerts in the
Far East. It was early summer and he had a month before he must leave.
Seizing the opportunity the interlude presented him, not for rest but
for study with his teacher. Dr. Josef Hofmann, Cherkassky hurried to
Maine, where he spent July playing and practicing under his master's
artistic guidance.
The following month Cherkassky crossed the continent and sailed
from San Francisco for Yokohama by way of Honolulu. In Japan he
appeared in Tokyo (in Hibiya-Hall), in Osaka, and in Kyoto, and
Kobe, vastly enjoying both the beauty of the Flowery Empire and the
enthusiasm with which audiences and critics received him everywhere
he played.
He then went to China and played in Shanghai, where he had great
success.
Apparently Russia had fascinated the Russian-born youth, for he
decided to return to New York by way of Siberia, Russia, the rest of
Europe, and the Atlantic, rather than to make the Pacific voyage. He
accordingly turned north upon leaving China, traveling by rail thru
Manchuria. On the long Siberian journey he says he practiced con-
{ 30 >
O VE RT O N E S
SHUILA. CHERKASSKY
playing in Moscow, in the spring of 1935
stantly on his small dummy piano, greatly exciting the curiosity of his
fellow travelers. He stopped briefly in Moscow and went on to Paris,
where he spent a week-end and attended one of Dr. Hofmann's con-
certs. He arrived in New^ York early in December.
On the evening of January 27, 1936, Cherkassky appeared as soloist
with the National Orchestral Association under Leon Barzin in Carnegie
Hall, and on Saturday afternoon, February 1st, gave a recital in Town
Hall. Later in the season he played in St. Paul, Minnesota; Granville,
Ohio; Baltimore; Red Bank, New Jersey; Miami; and Brooklyn. On
April 28th he was guest artist with Mildred Dilling at the Embassy
of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in Washington, D. C.
As a child, Shura Cherkassky played in the city of his birth, Odessa,
and coming soon afterwards to the United States, made his debut in
Baltimore and appeared in New York City, at the age of eleven. While
still very young he toured the British Isles (with Albert Coates and
the London Symphony Orchestra), Australia, New Zealand, and South
Africa, and appeared in Paris and Berlin. More recently he has appeared
in Montreal, Quebec, Winnipeg, and Ottawa, and in Minneapolis.
<31 >
l/l/e (^ ate It Ui\7 In LJut /<CevattLna
MOST particularly do we not wish to be accused of possessing any
such elderly traits as "reminiscing," "living in the past," and so
on, but some of the ^occurrences of the time that has elapsed between
our last issue (May 1932) and the end of the school year 1934-35
are so significant that we cannot refrain from harking back at least in
some degree.
During this period of our retirement, four graduates of The Curtis
Institute of Music were accepted by the Metropolitan Opera Company
of New York. Three of these are now widely known — Rose Bampton,
Irra Petina, and Helen Jepson. The fourth, Charlotte Symons, soprano,
had her first season this year with the company. Miss Jepson's debut,
as Heletie in the premiere on January 24, 1935, of In the Pasha s Garden
(music by John Laurence Seymour), with Lawrence Tibbett as the
Pasha, Ettore Panizza conducting, was thoroly covered by the critics.
Her activities and Miss Bampton's are too well publicized to require
review here.
One graduate had some rather unique operatic experience during
this time. This is Edwina Eustis, who won not a few laurels for her
work with the Art of Musical Russia. The part that Miss Eustis played
in this company's productions is the more remarkable because of her
being almost the only American in a company of Russian-born people
devoted to a thoroly Russian repertoire. One of Miss Eustis's appear-
ances was on the occasion of Efrem Zimbalist's conducting a perform-
ance of Tschaikowsky's Eugen Onegin, on February 24, 1935, at the
Mecca Auditorium, New York City, in which Miss Eustis sang Olga.
The brilliant operatic season of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1934-
35 afforded great opportunity for many Curtis students and graduates.
'Detailed accounts of the years 1932-33 and 1933-34 may be found in typewritten copies of Overtones
(Vols. IV and V) in the Library of The Curtis Institute of Music.
Continued on page ;8
in}
*==A- kJi^I to tke C^naLUk Ji4.blL
ee
PHILADELPHIA iiiade a unique contribution to the celebration of the
twenty-fifth anniversary of His Majesty King George V's accession
to the throne.
When the Philadelphia branch of The English-Speaking Union
undertook to send an offering to His Majesty's Silver Jubilee it was
the inspiration of one of its members to make that offering music. The
project rapidly assumed definite shape under the enthusiastic mould-
ing of the committee, emerging as the presentation of two concerts
in London under the auspices of The English-Speaking Union of the
British Empire.
The ten young artists chosen by the committee to give the concerts
were graduates of The Curtis Institute of Music: Rose Bampton, Agnes
Davis, and Benjamin de Loache, singers; Philip Frank, violinist; The
Curtis String Quartet; Martha Halbwachs Massena, pianist; Elizabeth
Westmoreland, accompanist.
The plans were carried out to a brilliantly successful conclusion.
The first concert was given at the home of Lord and Lady Astor in St.
James's Square on the evening of June 25th. About three hundred
people, many prominent in diplomatic, official, and social circles, were
gathered together by Lady Astor to meet the visiting artists, all of
whom were present altho not all participated in the concert. The
program was :
Bessie Bobtail ) n i n i
\\j un x/TTT Tj > • • • • SamueL Barber
With Rue My Heart is Laden j
Captain Stratton's Fancy Deems Taylor
Benjamin de Loache
Ah, Love But a Day! Mrs. H. H. A. Beach
T^ > Samuel Barber
Dance j
Rose Bampton
{33}
OVERTONES
Serenade Samuel Barber
Italian Dance Gian-Carlo Menotti
The Curtis String Quartet
The Sea Has Covered Her Face . Edith Evans Braun
Mary's entrance aria, 1
from "Peter Ibbetson" I Deems Taylor
The Rivals j
Lament of Ian the Proud Charles T. Griffes
Rose Bampton
Negro Spirituals:
Go Down, Moses!
Joshua Fit de Battle ob Jericho
My Lord, What a Mornin'!
It's Me, Oh Lord!
Benjamin de Loache
Dover Beach Samuel Barber
Rose Bampton and The Curtis String Quartet
After this concert Lord Reading was kind enough to write the
President of The Curtis Institute about the "admirable and talented
group of musicians" of whose visit he said he was able to inform
His Majesty the King. Letters also were received from Lady Astor
and Sir Evelyn Wench.
The second concert was given at the American Embassy on the
afternoon of June 28th, with a tea given by the Ambassador and Mrs.
Bingham. The program:
Sing to Me, Sing! Sidney Homer
Contentment Marian Coryell
Bird of the Wilderness Edward Horsman
Agnes Davis
Etchings Albert Spalding
October — Books — Professor — Impatience — Games
— Sunday Morning — Hurdy Gurdy — Ghosts —
Happiness
From the Cane-brake Samuel Gardner
Philip Frank
{ 34 >
OVE RTO N E S
Scottish Poem Edward MacDowell
The White Peacock Charles T. Griffes
Fantasy Harl McDonald
Nirvana Ernest Bloch
Two Preludes George Gershwin
Martha Halbwachs Massena
May Day Carol Deems Taylor
The Sleep That Flits on Baby's Eyes . . John Alden Carpenter
Do Not Go, My Lovel „ . , , „
At the Well / K^chard Hageman
Agnes davis
Sonata for Violin and Piano Harold Morris
Adagio
Allegro vigoroso
Philip Frank and Martha Halbwachs Massena
Elizabeth Westmoreland was the accompanist for both concerts.
The ten young people were very cordially received by the British
people and were entertained at luncheon by the Dowager Lady
Swaythling in her home in Kensington Court, at luncheon by Sir Henry
Wood at the Langham Hotel, and at tea by some Members of Parlia-
ment at the House of Commons.
It is the object of The English-Speaking Union "to draw together
in the bond of comradeship the English-speaking peoples of the
world." . . . The music carried across the sea and presented in the
British capital as a contribution to the festivities was the work of
United States composers. The ten young artists who performed it were
United States citizens, every one trained to his art in that country.
They made the voyage to England and back expressly for the purpose
of conveying their gift. In this gift from one English-speaking people
to another the bond of comradeship was manifest.
i35>
to .2
s
5e^
cr:^ L^kantbet yl/UiMc i^-ancett lh J^own ^^r-rall
THE outstanding "special" event of the current season of The Curtis
Institute of Music taking place outside the school was a concert of
chamber music given in Tow^n Hall, New York City, on Tuesday eve-
ning, March 24th. Dr. Louis Bailly of the faculty was in charge.
A string orchestra was used, as well as a string quartet, piano, and
violin, and the organ in Town Hall. The assisting artists were Jennie
Robinor, pianist (graduate 1934 in Chamber Music), Philip Frank,
'34, violinist, and Claribel Gegenheimer, student of Organ.
Six Dances by Claude Gervaise (sixteenth century), revised and
adapted for string orchestra by Rosario Scalero, opened the program,
after which Ernest Chausson's Concert for Piano and Violin Soli and
String Quartet was played.
After the intermission the string orchestra returned to the stage and
played the Triptyque of Alexandre Tansman. Handel's Concerto for Organ
and Orchestra, Opus 4, Number 5, a work rarely performed, followed.
Ernest Bloch's Concerto Grosso for Piano and String Orchestra was the
final number.
Dr. Bailly conducted all works other than the Chausson Concert,
which is performed without a conductor.
{37>
J^ke K^u'LoyeayL J-an^c^ oj: <^eme K^iitlL^ ^^alk
I
T WAS to be expected that some of the ten young people giving the
Jubilee concerts for The English-Speaking Union would not be con-
tent to come home without at least a look at the continent. Two of
them made concert tours before returning to their own country.
Upon leaving London, Philip Frank proceeded to Vienna, where
he settled down for several weeks. Late in August this violinist tested
the reactions of continental audiences to his playing by making public
appearances in Bad Ausee and Bad Ischl. He then gave a recital in the
Wienersaal of the Mozarteum Academy, Salzburg. A short time after-
wards he went on tour. In Budapest he had Erica Morini, Professor
Leo Weiner, and others of the musical world, in his audience. Going
on to Geneva, Mr. Frank gave a recital in the Salle du Conservatoire . In
Brussels four days later he appeared at the Palais des Beaux- Arts. His
final concert before sailing was in The Hague.
PHILIP FRANK in Vienna
Elizabeth Westmoreland, accompa-
nist, went from London to Paris, where
she spent July, later making a pleasure
trip to Switzerland . She j oined Mr . Frank
at Salzburg, playing his accompaniments
in Bad Ausee, Bad Ischl, and Salzburg,
and later shared his program given in
the Brussels Palais des Beaux- Arts . She
was also his accompanist for his recital
in The Hague. After a short interval,
spent in Paris, Miss Westmoreland pro-
ceeded to London, where she met another
<38>
O V E R T O N E S
Curtis graduate, Irra Petina, whom she j^
accompanied on a concert tour, return-
ing to the United States late in November.
Irra Petina, mezzo-soprano of the
Metropolitan Opera Company, arrived
in London toward the end of September.
In the middle of October she gave a
recital in Wigmore Hall, and went on
to a tour of Berlin, Vienna, Warsaw,
and Budapest. Returning to London
in November she appeared again in
Wigmore Hall before sailing back to
the United States for the operatic season.
ELIZABETH WESTMORELAND and IRRA
PETINA in Warsaw
All of these young artists were making their first appearances in
Europe.
{ 39 >
J^kc K^uttiA <:^ttLna ^^^aattel
EVEN before The Curtis String Quartet had left the American shores,
which it did by way of Canada, for its first appearance on the other
side of the Atlantic, it had received a cabled invitation from the
British Broadcasting Corporation to give a concert with Rose Bampton
on the air during the time these young artists were to be in London.
A most generous portion of the British radio time-table was offered
the Americans, the Quartet being asked to play a total of fifty-five
minutes, and the entire concert to last an hour and a quarter. Works
of contemporary American composers were especially requested, to
balance the classical works that were to make up the first half of
the program.
Hastily collecting some additional music — the time was very short
— the Quartet made up its program while motoring from Rockport,
Maine, to Quebec, and then learned one complete work while crossing
on the Empress of Britain.
The concert was given on Sunday, June 30, 1935- The Quartet had
already played at the home of Lord and Lady Astor in one of the
concerts given for the British Jubilee. The radio program opened with
the Haydn Qiiartet, Opus 54, Number 2, after which Miss Bampton
sang some German Ueder. The rest of the concert was devoted to
modern works, the John Alden Carpenter jQ^^f^r/^^r, Gian-Carlo Menotti's
Italian Dance, and '^ Dover Beach' ^ (Barber) for voice and string quartet,
with Walter Kramer's "Tivo Souls,'' Edith Evans Braun's ^^ Clouds,"
and Samuel Barber's "Daisies" and "Dance" coming midway.
Returning to the United States early in July, the Quartet spent the
rest of the summer in Maine, giving its annual series of concerts in
Bar Harbor and Sorrento.
A New England tour occupied the early part of the winter, during
which the Quartet made its seventh annual appearance at the Harvard
•{ 40 >
OVE RT O N E S
Musical Association in Boston, its fourth at Bowdoin College, Bruns-
wick, Maine, and its third at Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, Connecticut,
giving concerts also in Waterville, Maine, and Rowayton, Connecticut.
The Quartet also gave concerts at Cornell University, Ithaca, and the
Tuesday Music Club in Schenectady, and then appeared at the Cosmo-
politan Club, NewT York City, and gave one of the concerts of the
Washington Irving High School Music Series, in New York City. The
southern tour embraced concerts in Nashville; Arlington, Commerce,
and Nacogdoches, Texas ;Fayetteville and Arkadelphia, Arkansas; and
r^
THE CURTIS STRING QUARTET
{41 >
OVE RT O N E S
Shreveport, Louisiana.
In Philadelphia the Quartet has given its own annual series of
concerts, which is becoming an outstanding feature of the city's winter
musical season. The 1935-36 series consisted of four concerts given in
the Plays and Players Theatre.
In April the Quartet filled a return engagement in Sweet Brier,
Virginia, and played also in Richmond, besides making a few addi-
tional appearances in and near Philadelphia.
The members of The Curtis String Quartet are Jascha Brodsky and
Charlesjaffe, violins, Max Aronoff, viola, andOrlandoCole, violoncello.
i 42 }
7
an(L j:am,LlLat <z=>^iicc^ lh new lylace^
MR. Alexander McCurdy was engaged to teach Organ and Church
Choir Conducting and began his duties at the Institute at the
beginning of the current year. He is a graduate of The Curtis Institute,
having studied with Dr. Lynnwood Farnam, his early musical training
having been obtained in San Francisco with Wallace A. Sabin. Cali-
fornia is Mr. McCurdy's native state. After an early beginning at play-
ing church services at the age of twelve, the steady upward climb of his
career commenced, and he successfully filled positions as organist in
large churches in Oakland and San Francisco. In 1924 he gave a recital
in Town Hall, New York City, which marked his first appearance in
the east. He is a concert organist of considerable experience, having
played upon most of the larger organs of the United States. Since 1927
he has been organist and choirmaster of the Second Presbyterian
Church, Philadelphia. He is also special recitalist at Swarthmore Col-
lege, giving an annual series of ten recitals in the Clothier Auditorium.
On June 1, 1936, Susquehanna University is to confer upon Mr. McCurdy
the honorary degree of Doctor of Music.
Mr. Wilhelm von Wymetal, Jr., instructor in Operatic Acting, was
released early in the winter to permit his accepting a position with the
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corporation in Hollywood, and Dr. Ernst
Joseph Maria Lert was brought to the school in March as operatic
instructor.
Dr. Lert was born in Vienna and obtained his Ph.D. degree at the
University there. Playwright and stage director, he has been connected
with the leading theatres in Vienna, Leipzig, Frankfurt-am-Main,
Milan (where he collaborated with Toscanini at the La Scala Opera),
Turin, Genoa, and Florence, with an interlude at the Metropolitan in
New York. He has also produced opera at the Salzburg Festivals, and
in Barcelona, Paris, Buenos Aires, Berlin, and Venice. He has lectured
{ 43 }
OVE RT O N E S
at Universities in Europe and the United States and is the author of
tAoxart auf dem. Theater. He has made translations and adaptations of
plays and operas and has contributed scientific and other articles to
various European and American magazines and newspapers.
An important organization change has consisted of the consolida-
tion of the Dean's and Student Counselor's offices with that of the
Director. Dr. Josef Hofmann, who thus became Director and Dean, ap-
pointed Mrs. Dorothy Lynch, former Student Counselor, as Assistant
to the Director. She retains her former duties in addition to those of the
Director's office.
At the end of December 1935, Mr. H. W. Eastman, Comptroller
1924-1935, retired. His period of service dated from the founding of the
school. Beginning in January 1936, Mr. Jay H. Mattis assumed the
duties of Comptroller.
•{ 44 >
cr^ ^elte*c hcapft ^:/n-en*cL J-c^nLaitka^ 29
(This letter, written at London July 6, 1935, was sent to Mrs. Bok. Temianka,
pupil of Carl Flesch, also studied Conducting at The Curtis Institute under Dr.
Artur Rodzinski. After leaving the Institute, Temianka, born of Polish parents
in Scotland, returned to Europe, spent some time on the continent, and then
went to London to live. — EdJ)
I FEEL I owe you an apology for not writing to you in such a long
time, and particularly when I have been having so many interesting
experiences during this period. But I am sure you realize how difficult
it is to write while being on a strenuous tour and working hard to
remain constantly at the top of one's form. And while in Russia I
would utilize every free hour I could snatch to visit places of interest.
I remained there for more than six weeks and played and saw a great
deal. In Leningrad I gave four concerts within six days at the Phil-
harmonic, then went on to Moscow, Kiev, Kharkov, and finally the
Caucasus, which is perhaps the most amazing part of the country,
combining scenery of the utmost magnificence and variety with a
multitude of races and types . . . My success in Russia has been very
satisfying, and before I had even finished the present tour, I was offered
a new contract to return there in December, when I shall make another
extensive tour and further gramophone records.
"From other countries I have also the most pleasant news to com-
municate; my recent debut in Switzerland has brought me a tour
culminating in an orchestral appearance with Ansermet in Geneve
(Brahms Concerto, November next). In Poland I also have an extensive
tour of three weeks with an orchestral appearance at the Warsaw
Philharmonic. Other concerts next season will take me to Norway,
Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Hungary, Estonia, and of course En-
gland. I feel that I have been making very definite headway in my
career this last year, and while I continue to work and plan and build
I can never forget for one moment how greatly I am indebted to you
■{ 45 }
OV E R T O N E S
and The Curtis Institute in every imaginable respect, and how every
result and success now attained is rooted in the foundations laid in
Philadelphia.
"My present stay in England is only of short duration, as I am
going to hold a summer course in Salzburg from July 15th until September
1st, which some violinists from various countries as well as a few of
my own pupils from England will attend. A number of my English
pupils are already doing very well and making good in public work.
"I was so delighted to see and hear my old fellow students from
The Curtis Institute again when they performed here last week, and
I greatly appreciated your kind thought in having me invited to the
special concert at the American Embassy. They have made a very
fine impression and I am hoping that I may witness their return and
continued success here."
Not only were Mr. Temianka's expectations for the present season
fulfilled but they were exceeded. His winter tour began October 27th
with a concert in Rotterdam, after which concerts in The Hague,
London, Glasgow, Luxemburg, Geneva, San Sebastian, Bilbao,
Madrid, Warsaw, Cracow, Lodz, Vilna, Kalinin, Moscow, Rostow,
Baku, Kharkov, Odessa, Leningrad, Helsingfors, Wiborg, Reval,
Tartu, Stockholm, Oslo, Burnley, and Antwerp rapidly followed,
until when Mr. Temianka returned to London at the end of February
he had played fifty-six concerts, and moreover had received return
engagements for next season at many of these places. We heard that
in March he expected to play in England, and in April and May in
Roumania, Poland, and perhaps Switzerland.
Ysaye, shortly before his death some years ago, said to this young
artist that what he found lacking in his playing was a hundred con-
cert engagements. Certainly Temianka has now more than made up
the deficiency.
•{ 46 >
c
aJicitza^
HELEN Jepson '34 made a rather startling success, we hear, in
Chicago with her Thais, being warmly acclaimed by no less a
person than Mary Garden. . . . Rose Bampton '34 has added one more
symphony orchestra to her achievements, the NewYork-Philharmonic,
with which she appeared as soloist under Toscanini in March and
again in April. . . . Irra Petina '35 is on her way to South America for
a four-months' operatic season in Buenos Aires. . . . Agnes Davis '34
is rounding out her first big concert season with a coast-to-coast tour
with Charles Hackett. . . .
Boris Goldovsky '34, who is chorus master and assistant conductor
of the Cleveland Orchestra opera, conducted two performances of Die
Fledermaus, was piano soloist with the Orchestra, and lectured on the
four operas performed by the Orchestra in 1935-36, Carmen, Der Kosen-
kavalier. Die Fledermaus, and Parsifal. He has been engaged as head of
the Opera School of the Cleveland Institute of Music. . . . Margaret
Codd '34, Albert Mahler '34, Abrasha Robofsky '35, and Eugene Loe-
wenthal (student) appeared in the Cleveland Orchestra operatic
performances. . . .
Inez Gorman was the Eva of Mr. Goossens's performances of Die
Meistersi77ger sung in English with the Cincinnati Symphony in March,
Eugene Loewenthal the Pogfier. . . .
William van den Burg '33 is assistant conductor of the San Francisco
Symphony Orchestra. . . .
Philip Frank '34, violinist, dashed off to the south for a concert
tour of four weeks and twenty-four concerts immediately upon return-
ing from Europe in September, then took a breathing spell, and played
in Syracuse and Troy, appeared with the Cincinnati Symphony and
Goossens, and gave a recital in Town Hall. . . .
The Curtis Institute was well represented in Town Hall this winter
{ 47 >
O VE RTO N E S
with recitals by Tatiana Sanzewitch '35, pianist, Ezra Rachlin, pianist
(still a student), Shura Cherkassky '35, pianist, Philip Frank, Benja-
min de Loache '34, baritone (winner of the Naumberg prize), and
Conrad Thibault '34, baritone, not to speak of the Institute's own
concert by the Chamber Music Department. . . .
The Institute also had a satisfactory number of its students and
graduates appearing as soloists with the Philadelphia Orchestra,
William Harms '34, pianist, Eudice Shapiro '35, violinist, Jeanne
Behrend '34, pianist, Jeanette Weinstein, pianist (student). Vera
Resnikoff, soprano (student), Agnes Davis, and Helen Jepson. . . .
Sol Kaplan, pianist (student), was soloist in one of the Philadelphia
Orchestra "Youth" concerts. . . . Margot Ros, one of the Institute's
youngest students, aged ten, a pianist, played the Mozart Concerto with
the Philadelphia Orchestra in the Children's Concert conducted by
Stokowski on December 21, 1935- • • • Margot also played David
Diamond's Concerto for a Precocious Child Pianist in a concert given by the
Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra and Composers' Laboratory about
this same time. . . .
Victor Gottlieb '35, cellist, who became a member of the Phila-
delphia Orchestra in October 1935, was released by that organization
in March in order that he might become the 'cello of the string quartet
being formed by Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge to play in the
Library of Congress; the other members of the quartet are William
Kroll, Nicolai Berezowsky, and Nicolai Moldavan, and concerts were
given almost immediately. . . .
Two singers are exceptionally happy about new positions, Daniel
Healy '34, who became Dean of the Duquesne University School of
Music at Pittsburgh in the autumn of 1935, and Walter Vassar '34, who
is now head of the Voice Department at Greensboro College in Greens-
boro, North Carolina. . . .
Gian-Carlo Menotti '33 is having his Pastorale for Piano and String
Orchestra distributed by G. Schirmer of New York, in the Schirmer
Orchestra Rental Library, and his Poemetti -per Maria Rosa (piano pieces
for children) have been accepted for publication by Ricordi. . . .
Ralph Berkowitz '35 had his transcription of a Toccata by Frescobaldi
for two pianos accepted by Universal Editions, Vienna, and his
{ 48 >
OVE RTO N E S
arrangement of the Kreutzer-Kaufman Etude-Caprice for two pianos
accepted by Schirmer ....
Eugene Helmer '35 was chosen by Madame Lea Luboshutz to play
her accompaniments in Europe where she toured during February and
March. . . .
Jean-Marie Robinault '34, pianist, of Paris, made a brief spring
visit to the United States during which he played the Tschaikowsky
Concerto with the Richmond (Virginia) Symphony Orchestra, Wheeler
Beckett conductor, and gave a recital for the Richmond Musicians
Club; he reported winter concerts in Zurich, Stuttgart, Munich, and
Berlin. . . .
Jeanne Behrend '34 won the Joseph H. Bearnes musical composition
prize for 1935- ■ • •
And (stop the presses, we must get this in!) — Samuel Barber wins
his second Pulitzer prize.
< 49 >
O V E R T O N E S
Andante .
Continued from page zo
lune, and a Spanish Dance by Granados; the Panis Angelicus from M.esse
solennelle (Franck), the Scherxptto from Vierne's Pieces in Free Style,
Karg-Elert's Choral Improvisation Adorn thyself, my Soul, and the
Finale from Widor's Symphony Number 2, with Schubert's Die AlUnacht
sung to organ accompaniment at
the end. On Wednesday, April
29th, the "signature music" of
the Curtis Institute hour (Berceuse,
Opus 20, No. 5 — .Josef Hofmann)
was first heard on the air, being
played by Dr. Hofmann himself
at the beginning of the broadcast
and, Mr. Zimbalist having ar-
ranged the work for violin and
piano, by Mr. Zimbalist and Dr. Hofmann again at the end. Hence-
forth the Berceuse, played by students after this auspicious inaugura-
tion, will be the Curtis Institute radio "signature." This is the seventh
year of these radio concerts, which were begun at the invitation of the
Columbia Broadcasting System, the concerts being broadcast over
Columbia's coast-to-coast network.
The Concert Course consists of programs given for schools, colleges,
and clubs within a hundred-mile radius of Philadelphia. Twenty con-
certs were scheduled for the current year for vocal, piano, violin, 'cello,
and harp soloists, and woodwind and chamber music ensembles, in
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. An operatic pro-
gram consisting of scenes from Faust, Nlartha, and The Bartered Bride,
given in costume, and sung and acted to piano accompaniment, was
presented for the Woman's Club of Woodbury, New Jersey.
Besides the concerts of the Concert Course, a series of fourteen
musicales was booked for various private homes of members of the As-
sociation of Main Line Women's Clubs (suburban Philadelphia).
A concert was given by the Chamber Music Department in Town
Hall, New York City, and is reported under its own heading (page 37)-
•{ 50 >
OVE RT O N E S
Photographs by Albtrt Pttirsm
Fritz Krueger, Charlotte Daniels, and Robert Topping
as Vashek, Marie, and Jenik in The Bartered Bride
The harp ensemble and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra were asked
by the chairman of the Philadelphia United Campaign to give concerts
in the Commercial Museum in behalf of the drive. The harp concert,
v^^hich Mr. Salzedo conducted, was given on March 15th, and the
Orchestra, conducted by Mr. Reiner, played its concert on March 20th.
Both concerts were broadcast.
The Concert Bureau was very active, booking numerous profes-
sional engagements for the students. Outstanding under this heading
was the engagement of three singers for two performances of The
Bartered Bride given at Bucknell University on the evenings of February
27th and 28th. These singers, Charlotte Daniels, Fritz Krueger, and
Robert Topping, performed the principal roles of Marie, Vashek, and
Jenik. Other parts, including those of orchestra and conductor, were
taken by members of the Bucknell student body and faculty. A wood-
wind ensemble was engaged to play at the dedication of a new build-
ing, an addition, for the Georgetown (Delaware) School on December
6th. William Harms, pianist, gave a recital for the Piano Teachers'
Association of Erie, Pennsylvania, in that city on February 3d, and
Leonard Treash, baritone, a recital at Bryn Mawr College on December
16th. The Trio Classique (Eudice Shapiro, violin, Ardelle Hookins,
flute, and Virginia Majewski, viola) gave a concert at the Oak Lane
Review Club, Philadelphia, on January 15th, and another one at the
<51>
OVE RT O N E S
New Century Club, Chester, Pennsylvania, on February 4th. Miscel-
laneous other engagements have been many.
Three organ students obtained church positions: Claribel Gegen-
heimer, at the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church; Oscar Eiermann, at
St. Ann's Episcopal Church, Willow Grove, Pennsylvania; and Richard
Purvis, at the Tioga Methodist Church, Philadelphia.
Three important events, in which guest artists participated, occurred
in Casimir Hall during the season. The first was a recital by Dr. Ernest
Hutcheson, eminent pianist and Dean of the Juilliard School of Music,
and Mr. Felix Salmond, of the Curtis Institute faculty, on Wednesday
evening, November 27th. Dr. Hutcheson and Mr. Salmond played the
five Sonatas of Beethoven for piano and 'cello.
The second event was a lecture, "The Saga of Music," delivered by
Dr. Heinrich Simon, of London, on Friday evening, April 3d. Dr.
Simon, who formerly owned and published the newspaper founded by
his grandfather, the Frankfurter Zeitiing (Frankfurt-am-Rhein), is also a
pianist. Students assisted in several musical illustrations required by
the lecturer.
The third was a program in honor of the great pianist, composer,
and statesman, Ignace Jan Paderewski, now in his seventy-sixth year,
given by his pupil and friend, Sigismond Stojowski, on the evening of
Thursday, April 16th. The short piano program — Variations and Fugue ^
Nocturne, Caprice Qgenre Scarlatti), Legende, and Cracovienne Fantastique —
was supplemented by the Sonata for Violin and Piano, played by a
Curtis graduate, Eudice Shapiro, and Madame Stojowska.
OnTuesday evening, January yth, Mr. Alexander McCurdy, organist,
gave the first faculty recital of the season, which was also Mr. McCurdy 's
first appearance in Casimir Hall as a member of the faculty. Mr.
McCurdy played the Prelude and Fugue in E minor, four Chorale Preludes,
and the Vivace from the Second Frio Sonata of Bach; two Sketches of
Robert Schumann; the Brahms chorale " Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen" ; de
Maleingreau's "Fhe Fumult in the Praetorium^ \ "The Legend of the
Mountain" from Sigfrid Karg-Elert's "Seven Pastels from the Lake of
Constance" \ and Cesar Franck's Final in B-flat major.
{52}
OVERTONES
Dr. Josef Hofmann, Director of The Curtis Institute, played a three-
sonata program on Thursday evening, April 2d, the F minor Schumann,
the Opus 110 of Beethoven, and the B minor of Chopin.
Dr. Louis Bailly, violist, gave the third concert in the faculty series
on Thursday evening, April 30th, v^ith Mr. Harry Kaufman, official
accompanist of the Institute, at the piano. Dr. Bailly's program con-
sisted of the Sonatas of Hindemith (Opus 25, Number 1 — for viola
alone), Rachmaninoff (G minor. Opus 19), Senaille (revised by Vincent
dTndy), and Wassilenko; and the Adagio from Bach's Toccata in C.
The student series in Casimir Hall opened with a graduation recital
in the Harp Department, on Thursday evening, January 16th. The
recital was given by Marjorie Tyre, student under Mr. Salzedo, and in-
cluded Mr. Salzedo 's Concerto for Harp and Seven Wind Instruments,
performed that evening for the first time in Philadelphia. The required
wind instruments — flute, oboe, two clarinets, bassoon, horn, and
trumpet — were selected from the student body. Miss Tyre will receive
the Diploma of The Curtis Institute of Music in May. She has been a
member of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 1932.
On Sunday afternoon, January 19th, Ezra Rachlin, pupil of Mr.
David Saperton, gave a piano recital in Casimir Hall.
Another harpist, Isabel Ibach, played her graduation recital on
Thursday evening, February 27th. Mr. Salzedo's transcription of
Brahms 's Lullaby was given its first performance by Miss Ibach in this
recital. A student string orchestra assisted Miss Ibach in performing
Debussy's Danse Profane and Danse Sacree. The number was conducted
by Mr. Salzedo. Miss Ibach will receive the degree of Bachelor of Music
in May.
Students of Violoncello under Mr. Salmond — William Klenz,
Joseph Druian, Harry Gorodetzer, Samuel Mayes, and Leonard Rose —
gave a concert on the evening of March 10th. Ralph Berkowitz, gradu-
ate in Accompanying under Mr. Harry Kaufman and studio accompanist
for Mr. Salmond, was at the piano for the program. The orchestral
score of Ernest Bloch's Schelomo (performed by Mr. Mayes) had been
arranged by Mr. Berkowitz for two pianos; for it Ethel Evans, student
under Mr. Kaufman, assisted at the second piano. Eudice Shapiro,
(53>
O V E R T O N E S
graduate in Violin under Mr. Zimbalist, assisted in the performance of
the Brahms Concerto for Violin and Violoncello (Opus 102).
On Sunday evening, March 22d, the chamber music program being
prepared under Dr. Bailly's direction for Town Hall was given a "dress
rehearsal."
Students of Voice under Miss van Emden — Elsie MacFarlane, con-
tralto, Barbara Thorne, soprano, Charlotte Daniels, soprano, Jane
Shoaf, soprano, and Selma Amansky, soprano (the last a graduate
doing post-graduate work) — gave a concert on Friday evening, March
27th. Vladimir Sokoloff, student under Mr. Kaufman, accompanied.
Another graduation recital, a joint one, was given on Monday eve-
ning, March 30th, by Leon Zawisza and David Frisina, students of
Violin under Mr. Hilsberg. Ethel Evans, student under Mr. Kaufman,
at the piano. Mr. Zawisza and Mr. Frisina will receive the Diploma of
The Curtis Institute at the May exercises.
On Thursday evening, April 9th, there was a concert by students in
Woodwind Ensemble under Mr. Marcel Tabuteau.
Students of Violin under Mr. Efrem Zimbalist — Oskar Shumsky,
Noah Bielski, and Frederick Vogelgesang — with Vladimir Sokoloff at
the piano gave the next concert on Thursday evening, April 23d.
Piano students under Mr. David Saperton — Constance Russell,
Mildred Gordon, Richard Goodman (who is to be graduated with the
Bachelor of Music degree in May), Eleanor Blum, and Sidney Finkel-
stein — appeared in Casimir Hall on Friday evening, April 24th.
Margot Ros, student in Piano with Madame Martha Halbwachs
Massena, played a recital in the Hall on Monday evening, April 27th.
On Tuesday evening, April 28th, Piano students of Madame Isa-
belle Vengerova — Phyllis Moss, Annette Elkanova, Sol Kaplan, and
Zadel Skolovsky — gave a concert.
As we go to press the following student recitals are scheduled,
taking us thru to the end of the school year: May 4th — students in
Voice under Mr. Emilio de Gogorza (Fritz Krueger, Leonard Treash,
Robert Topping, William Home, Lester Englander, Eugene Loewen-
thal, and Vera ResnikofF); May 5th — students in Chamber Music under
Dr. Louis Bailly ; May 8th — graduation recital of ^Charles Jaffe, student
•Charles Jaffe and Victor Gottlieb received the Diploma of The Curtis Institute of Music in May 1935,
{ 54 }
OVE RT O N E S
of Violin under Mr. Efrem Zimbalist; May 11th — graduation recital
of ^Victor Gottlieb, student in Violoncello under Mr. Felix Salmond;
May 14th — graduation recital of Maryjane Mayhew, student of Harp
under Mr. Carlos Salzedo receiving the Bachelor of Music degree May
19th.
In the spring The Curtis Institute received evidence of a most cordial
good fellowship emanating from two external organizations, one a
large commercial corporation. April is audition month at the Institute.
Ordinarily, auditions are held at the Institute building in Philadelphia
and while there is no fee the applicant must meet his own expenses, a
matter of some proportions when a long journey is involved. But this
audition time eleven orchestra instrument teachers were touring and
visiting all parts of the country with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Holding auditions afield is not a new idea at The Curtis Institute; it
is, in fact, a policy to permit faculty members to hear applicants while
on tour. It was desired that the Philadelphia Orchestra Curtis Institute
teachers do just this.
When the matter was broached, Mr. Stokowski enthusiastically
agreed to cooperate. Then it was that the RCA- Victor Company, learn-
ing what was afoot, fell in with the project, offering its facilities in
announcing the auditions and extending the hospitality of its studios.
A member of the Curtis staff. Miss Helen Hoopes, went ahead to make
the necessary arrangements, and auditions in orchestra instruments
were held in the cities of the Philadelphia Orchestra's tour.
Thus the Philadelphia Orchestra and the RCA- Victor Company
worked hand-in-hand with The Curtis Institute to the ultimate benefit
of American youth and American symphony orchestras.
A visitor w^ho made several calls during the year was Mr. Ber-
nardino Molinari. We were most happy to show him our school and
especially delighted to have him listen to our orchestra.
The annual Christmas party took place on the evening of December
19th, putting Curtis folk into a gala mood for the holidays. A huge
and received postgraduate supervision in their major subjects in 1935-36.
{55>
OVERTONES
Christmas tree was set up in the Common Room, and festoons and
wreaths of laurel and holly decorated the adjoining rooms and cor-
ridors. For weeks an air of mystery had hung about.
The students had worked hard and ingeniously to create a surprise.
As one entered Casimir Hall, whither one had been guided, part of the
surprise was immediately apparent. For there was a specially con-
structed stage, with a curtain and an orchestra "pit," part of the
students' labors, all set up to display the rest of them, the piece de re-
sistance^ which was the surprise (or surprises) of the evening, a series of
presentations by each of the several departments of the school, under
the "direction" of the students. An amazing symphony orchestra and a
stupendous brass band, each with its own dynamic conductor, extra-
ordinary violin and piano soloists, a harp dramatization and a chamber
music parody, and very grand opera — these were some of the attrac-
tions that followed each other in breathless succession. As at a three-
ring circus, there was something doing every minute.
After supper, served early for the benefit of the hard-working
"artists," dancing took place in the cleared Casimir Hall.
Thru the year, informal tea was served in the Common Room on
Tuesdays.
The usual reception and dance will follow the graduation exercises.
Our third Commencement will be held on the afternoon of Tuesday,
May 19th. The ^candidates for graduation are:
(to receive the Diploma of The Curtis Institute of Music) —
Ernani Angelucci, in French Horn
Rhadames Angelucci, in Oboe
Simon Asin, in Viola
Harold Bennett, in Flute
Warren Burkhart, in Trombone
Alvin Dinkin, in Viola
David Frisina, in Violin
Cecille Geschichter, in Piano
Marian Head, in Violin
Arnold Jacobs, in Tuba
'List subject to correction
{56 >
OVE RT O N E S
Leonard Mogill, in Viola
Oskar Shumsky, in Violin
Frank Sinatra, in Percussion
Vladimir Sokoloff, in Accompanying
Jean Spitzer, in Violin
Marjorie Tyre, in Harp
Herman Watkins, in French Horn
Jeanette Weinstein, in Piano
Leon Zawisza, in Violin
(to receive the Degree in Course Bachelor of Music)-
Charlotte Daniels, in Voice
Richard Goodman, in Piano
John Harmaala, in Trumpet
Isabel Ibach, in Harp
Eugene Loewenthal, in Voice
^Virginia Majewski, in Viola
Maryjane Mayhew, in Harp
Charlotte Ridley, in Voice
Irene Singer, in Voice
Leonard Treash, in Voice
Louis Vyner, in Viola and Conducting
During the year The Curtis Institute received two valued gifts from
the families of two former members of the faculty, the has relief por-
traits of the late Madame Marcella Sembrich by Gruppe, and the late
Louis Svecenski by Vuchinich. The Sembrich plaque hangs in the
studio where the beloved singer used to teach, a room used also by the
Director for teaching, eloquently commemorating both the association
of Madame Sembrich with the school and the long friendship between
the two artists. The portrait plaque of Mr. Svecenski has been placed in
the balcony corridor of the main building. . . . Another former
member of the faculty is permanently represented in our halls, the late
Dr. Lynnwood Farnam, by an oil portrait presented by his father.
^Virginia Majewski received the Diploma of The Curtis Institute of Music in May 1935 and completed
the Degree course in 1935-36.
{->!}
OVE RTO N E S
Continued from page j2
The uncut Tristan performances under Fritz Reiner, Carmen conducted
by Alexander Smallens, Der Kosenkavalier under Mr. Reiner's direction,
Haensel and Gretel (sung in English), Mr. Smallens conducting, Gluck's
Iphigenie en Aulide, under Mr. Smallens, Boris Godounojf, under Mr.
Smallens, Falsfaff (in English), Mr. Reiner conducting. The Marriage
of Figaro (sung in English), Mr. Reiner conducting, and Die Meister-
singer, with Mr. Reiner conducting, being the entire series with but one
exception, all included Curtis singers in their casts. Outstanding was
the work of Agnes Davis, who sang such roles as Mistress Marianne
Leitmetier and Mistress Ford, Margaret Codd, whose roles included
Gretel and Cheruhino, and Eugene Loewenthal, who made numerous ap-
pearances and did some fine work as Pistol in Falstajf. Irra Petina was
the Feodor of the Boris performances, a role which she endows with
individuality, and Edwina Eustis the Marina, Miss Eustis appearing
also in Falstaff as Dame Quickly.
In Cleveland, numerous singers of Curtis Institute production ap-
peared in the operatic series of the Cleveland Orchestra under Dr. Artur
Rodzinski in the winter of 1934-35- Among them were Miss Eustis,
who sang Fricka in Die Walkiire, Eugene Loewenthal, who was the
Lodovico in Verdi's Otello, Abrasha Robofsky, whose performance of the
Sacristan in Tosca was declared by the Cleveland Plain Dealer to be "a
little masterpiece," and Albert Mahler, who made several appearances
in roles he has sung many times.
Orchestral solo appearances during this time have been many, both
by students and graduates. Mr. Stokowski's uncut performance, on
three days, of Parsifal with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the spring of
1933 included sixteen Curtis students and one graduate. Rose Bampton.
Miss Bampton sang Ktmdry with brilliant success, receiving warmest
praise from the critics. Agnes Davis, Rose Bampton, and Eugene Loe-
wenthal were soloists in the performance of the Ninth Symphony in
April 1934, by Mr. Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. In the
•{ 58 >
OVE RT O N E S
season of 1934-35 Rose Bampton was soloist in the first performance
of Bach's great Mass in B minor ever to be given by the Philadelphia
Orchestra (Mr. Stokowski conducted), and Agnes Davis was the
soprano soloist in the "Resurrection ' Symphony of Gustav Mahler, given
with Eugene Ormandy as guest conductor. Numerous other Curtis
artists, including Irra Petina, Iso Briselli (violinist) and Boris Gol-
dovsky (pianist), were soloists in the Philadelphia Orchestra 1934-35
series of "Pop" concerts. Shura Cherkassky made his first appearance in
Minneapolis in March 1934 when he was soloist under Ormandy with
the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, and Agnes Davis appeared twice
in December 1935 (two programs) with that Orchestra in its home
city, also under Mr. Ormandy. . . . Space does not permit a complete
listing of all orchestral appearances of Curtis folk.
Five graduates and one student of The Curtis Institute gave recitals
in Town Hall: Philip Frank, violinist, Oskar Shumsky, violinist
(student), Nadia Reisenberg, pianist, Natalie Bodanskaya, soprano,
Shura Cherkassky, pianist, and Rose Bampton, mezzo-soprano. Phila-
delphia recitals included those of Jeanne Behrend, pianist, Benjamin
de Loache, baritone, and Marjorie Tyre, harpist of the Philadelphia
Orchestra. Again space does not allow a complete listing.
The Robin Hood Dell concerts of the Philadelphia Orchestra con-
tinued to give students and graduates opportunity for professional
work during summers.
Three Curtis graduates in Composition (Samuel Barber, Roland J.
Leich, and Harlow John Mills) won Joseph H. Bearnes prizes for
musical composition, Mr. Barber and Mr. Leich receiving awards for
1933 and Mr. Mills an award for 1934. It was the second time Mr.
Barber had received one of these prizes. Mr. Leich also won the Carl
F. Lauber Music Award for 1933- Benjamin de Loache, baritone, won a
Walter W. Naumberg Musical Foundation prize in April 1935, carrying
a debut in Town Hall, and Leonard Treash, baritone, won a prize given
by the National Federation of Music Clubs. Samuel Barber in 1935 won
both the Pulitzer award or scholarship for European study and the
Prix de Rome.
Jorge Bolet, pianist, in 1934 received from his native country the
signal honor of a diplomatic passport which states that he holds the
•( 59 >
OVERTONES
"honorary commission of the Secretary of Education to realize his
plans for the diffusion of Cuban music."
Alexander McCurdy, organist and choirmaster of the Second Pres-
byterian Church, is one of the most active of Philadelphia organists.
At his church Mr. McCurdy is wonderfully successful in presenting the
larger works of the great masters, such as the Bach Cantatas, the
Kequiems of Brahms and Mozart, the Cesar Franck Mass in A, and the
'^Stabat Mater' of both Dvorak and Rossini. During the winter of
1934-35 he produced the complete Passion According to St. Matthew, of
Bach, on four Sunday afternoons, with his choir, soloists, a boy choir
from Old Christ Church, and an orchestra from the Philadelphia
Orchestra, assisted of course by the organ.
Shura Cherkassky toured Russia in the spring of 1935-
Two Europeans who came to The Curtis Institute for their musical
training reported some very successful concerts. Henri Temianka,
London violinist, who has during the past several years toured exten-
sively in the Netherlands, Austria, France, and the British Isles, made
several appearances in 1934 in London, playing in Wigmore Hall and
in the Queens Hall Promenade Concerts under Sir Henry Wood, and
made his first Russian tour. Jean-Marie Robinault, pianist, resident of
Paris, had some brilliant successes in Holland, Switzerland, Germany
and England.
In 1934 the first publication of students' original compositions oc-
curred. It consisted of music for the carillon. In 1930 and 1931 The
Curtis Institute sent a group of students of composition to Florida for
the purpose of studying the carillon to the end that works especially
for bells might be produced. These students joined other Curtis students
of the Organ Department at Mountain Lake and took up the theory and
practice of bell playing with Mr. Anton Brees, carillonneur of the
Mountain Lake Singing Tower. Mr. Rosario Scalero, head of the De-
partment of Composition, also visited Mountain Lake during these
two winters in the interest of carillon music. The music published con-
sisted of Samuel Barber's Siiite for Carillon, Gian-Carlo Menotti's Six
Compositions for Carillon, and Nino Rota's Campane a Sera and Campane a
Festa, and was brought out as The Curtis Institute of Music Carillon Series
by G. Schirmer, Inc.
•( 60 >
OVE RT O N E S
One of the distinctive features of student life at The Curtis Institute
of Music is frequent appearance in public. As soon as they are ready
for it, students are sent out by the Institute to obtain by gradual degrees
a knowledge of concertizing. They perform upon the concert and
operatic stage and before the microphone, gaining thru actual experi-
ence a thoro familiarity with professional life as an artist.
The Curtis Institute provides this training thru several channels:
an annual series of weekly radio concerts broadcast over the nation-
wide network of the Columbia Broadcasting System, an annual series
of concerts known as The Concert Course of The Curtis Institute of
Music, in which students appear at schools, colleges, and clubs within
a hundred-mile radius of Philadelphia, and special concerts by depart-
ments as scheduled from time to time. The students appear as soloists
and in ensemble. Concerts by The Curtis Symphony Orchestra con-
ducted by Fritz Reiner, chamber music groups in various formations
under Dr. Louis Bailly , and woodwind ensembles under Marcel Tabuteau
are frequent.
For seven years (1928-35) The Curtis Institute presented annually a
series of chamber music concerts in the Pennsylvania Museum of Art,
Philadelphia. Dr. Bailly, under whose artistic direction the concerts
were given, produced many novelties, premieres, and works of unusual
interest including the Faure 'Siequtem for Voice, Chorus, Organ and
Orchestra (first secular performance in the United States), the Tansman
Triptyque for String Orchestra (first performance in Philadelphia), the
Abergavenny (Bourgault-Ducoudray) for Flute and String Quartet,
Chausson's Chanso7i Perpetuelle for Voice and String Orchestra, Four
Poems for Voice, Viola and String Orchestra, Poulenc's Rapsodie Negre
for Voice and Orchestra, Ravel's Shehera^ade for Voice and Orchestra,
and his Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and String
Quartet, Schonberg's Verklarte Nacht String Sextet (given with the
composer in the audience), the Svendsen String Octet, Opus 3, and
Zilcher's setting of the Song of Solomon for Voice and String Quartet,
and his Marienlieder for Voice and String Quartet.
In the season of 1934-35 the presentation by the combined forces of
the orchestral and operatic departments of The Barber of Seville under
the musical direction of Mr. Reiner was of especial interest. The per-
{ 61 >
OVE RT O N E S
formances were decidedly novel, being characterized by distinct enun-
ciation of an excellent English translation of the libretto, which
aroused the delighted comment of audience and press, and ingenious
and amusing stage settings especially prepared at the direction of Dr.
Herbert Graf. Mr. Reiner conducted. Performances were given in the
Academy of Music, Philadelphia, for the Philadelphia Forum, and in
the concert hall of The Juilliard School of Music, New York City, at
the invitation of the Juilliard Graduate School. A distinguished audi-
ence gathered upon the occasion of the latter performance.
On February 12, 1934, six young people of The Curtis Institute gave
a concert at The White House. They were the Curtis String Quartet,
graduate ensemble, Jennie Robinor, pianist, graduate in Chamber
Music, and Irene Singer, soprano, student of Voice. In the audience
were the President and Mrs. Roosevelt, Mrs. Nicholas Longworth,
and many others prominent in national affairs.
Public appearances such as these are assigned students as required
work and an essential part of their course of study.
In 1934 The Curtis Institute of Music inaugurated the policy of
granting degrees in course. In the light of degree requirements, students
of The Curtis Institute of necessity fall into two distinct classes. Ac-
cording to the Curtis standard of admission there is one primary req-
uisite demanded of students, that they be gifted musically. The posses-
sion of sufficient musical talent, while other qualifications are to be
met, is almost positive assurance in itself of acceptance. This being so,
it is inevitable that young students gaining admission, while measur-
ing up to the musical requirements of The Curtis Institute, lack upon
admission the degree entrance requirements in academic work. While
these young students, some of whom come from foreign countries, are
tutored at the Institute in the common branches of academic study, it is
the rare exception who succeeds in covering the standard high school
course. This is so for many reasons, some of which are quite apparent,
which need not be discussed here. Consequently, students upon reach-
ing graduate status musically may or may not have met the academic
requirements of a degree.
{ 62 >
O V E R T O N E S
The policy of awarding diplomas and degrees at graduation was
made retroactive. The diploma of The Curtis Institute of Music is given
to every student at graduation whether or not he receives a degree.
The first Commencement was held on the afternoon of May 22,
1934. Seventy-eight students were graduated, thirty-four receiving the
degree Bachelor of Music. The honorary degree of Doctor of Music
was conferred on Madame Marcella Sembrich and Professor Leopold
Godowsky. In May 1935, one hundred and fourteen students were
graduated, twenty-three receiving the degree Bachelor of Music.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Music was conferred July 16,
1935, upon Wiktor Labunski.
These are the high lights of the three years just prior to the present
one, whose events are related under another heading.
•{63 }
by SARAH HETTINGER
THE Library of The Curtis Institute of Music has acquired some
interesting and worthwhile music and books during the seasons
1934-35 and 1935-36 and now comprises 28,600 volumes. Among
the most important recent acquisitions are first editions of Wagner,
Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Moussorgsky, Debussy, and others.
Perhaps the most extraordinary item is an exceptionally fine copy
of a very small book by Joannes Aurelius Augurelles, Carmina^ that
came to us in November 1935- This very rare book, of seventy-five
pages in Latin, contains one of the earliest known illustrations of the
Viol de Gamba. Published in Verona in July 1491, "this copy be-
longed to Francesco Giambullari, the famous Florentine historian and
literateur of the 16th century, and has his autograph signature at the
end of the volume, below the colophon." From thence, after some
unknown wanderings, it became the property of Henry William Poor
who had it beautifully bound in red levant morocco. This small
treasure is carefully preserved along with other irreplaceable volumes
in the Library, the two ^Antiphonaries and the very precious book of
^Organ Preludes by Adam Ileborgh.
The first editions include works by a varied group of composers.
Perhaps the most unusual of these is a conductor's score of Richard
Wagner's first complete opera. Die Feen, a romantic opera in three
acts. This work was composed in 1833 but was not performed until
many years later, at Munich, in 1888. The opera remained unpublished
for a long time and was at last brought out in a privately printed edi-
tion by the King of Bavaria about the year 1872. There never was a
reprint. Our copy is in excellent condition, and the score is very
interesting as an example of the great composer's early work.
'Overtones, Vol. 1, p. 93-
^Overtones, Vol. 1, p. 119.
•{ 64 }
O VE RT O N E S
Another Wagner item of the first editions is a piano-vocal score of
his last opera, Parsifal. This was published by B. Schott's Sons
(Mayence) in 1882.
Another important acquisition is the vocal score with piano re-
duction of Moussorgsky's Boris Godounov, first edition. This work
has Russian text thruout and was published by Bessels of Moscow, in
1875, a year after the first performance at the Mariinski Theatre in
St. Petersburg.
We have also acquired the piano-vocal score of Beethoven's
Fidelio (Vienna: Artaria, 1814), and the piano-vocal scores of Debussy's
Pelleas et Melisande (Paris: E. Fromont, 1902) and Richard Strauss's
Elektra (Berlin: Adolph Furstner, 1908), the latter a presentation copy
with the composer's autograph.
The piano works in these recently acquired first editions are
Beethoven's Sonata, Opus 111, dedicated to the Archduc Rodolphe
d'Autriche, published by Schlesinger in Berlin, April 1823; Brahms's
Zwei Rhapsodien, Opus 79 (Berlin: Simrock, 1880); Chopin's Ballade,
Opus 52, and his Berceuse, Opus 57 (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel,
February 1843, and May 1845); and Schumann's Carnaval (Leipzig:
Breitkopf & Hartel, 1834).
Franck's Quatuor is here in score only (Paris: J. Hamelle, 1889), as
is the case for the orchestral work of Rimsky-Korsakow, Scheherazade
(Leipzig: Belaieff, 1889). Just the opposite is true of Brahms's Sym-
phonie No. 4 (Berlin: Simrock, 1886), for the parts are all of this
important work that we have in first edition.
Schubert's Premier grand trio. Opus 99 (Vienna: Diabelli, 1836) com-
pletes the list of first editions most recently added to The Curtis
Institute of Music Library.
Of the several large collections of music that recently have been
given to the Library we shall mention only one, not because apprecia-
tion of other gifts is lacking but because of the very particular interest
of this collection.
The trustees of The Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry
where it had been in custody, and the heirs of Charles H. Jarvis, by
joint action, presented the music library of this Philadelphian to The
■(65 >
OVE RT O N E S
Curtis Institute of Music in January 1935- This library was moved
to The Curtis Institute in March of that year and, known as the
Charles H. Jarvis Memorial Library, it now occupies a space on the
balcony of the second floor of the main building.
There are about seventeen hundred volumes in this collection.
Most of the works are by classical composers and those whose works
were new and modern — and popular — during the last quarter of the
nineteenth century. The collection is made up of chamber music,
piano-vocal scores of operas, miniature scores of orchestral works,
and piano and violin solo works, but also in the Jarvis Library is an
invaluable addition to any reference library, a set of sixty-eight
volumes comprising all of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
This is one of the very few complete sets of the Breitkopf and Hartel
edition in this country, and its excellent condition and beautiful bind-
ing make it an even rarer acquisition.
About fifty new titles have been added to the library of the Two-
Piano Department. These include arrangements of symphonic works
by representative composers and some works written originally for
two pianos. Some classical, and numerous modern French and Ameri-
can writers are represented in the catalog of this class.
As to books, there are few to report. Music being of prime interest
and importance to us, works of music naturally receive first thought,
works about music and those who make it come afterwards. Just a
word as to the scope and interest of a few books recently received :
Ehrmann, Alfred von: Johannes Brahms — Weg, Werk und Welt
(Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1933)- An excellent and recent
biography.
Erskine, John: A Musical Companion (New York: Knopf, 1936).
This work is a condensation of a work of similar title edited
and published in England by A. L. Bacharach. It aims to give
necessary detail about various musical forms, and to give enough
historical background to be a complete musical companion even
to the lay reader.
{ 66 >
O VE R T O N E S
EwEN, David: The Man with the Baton (New York: Crowell,
1936). An interesting series of sketches of modern conductors
in America and Europe, with comments on their methods of
conducting. Their reactions to both orchestra members and
audience and their effect on both groups are intelligently and
sympathetically set forth.
Hale, Philip: Philip Hale's Boston Symphony Programme Notes:
Historical, Critical and Descriptive Comment on Music and Com-
posers. Edited by John N. Burk. (New York: Doubleday,
Doran & Company, 1935.) The title of this book covers rather
thoroly its contents. To those already acquainted with Mr.
Hale's work it is sufficient; to others it need only be added that
the notes are particularly valuable where he deals with modern
composers and their works, since much information will be
found here that is difficult to locate elsewhere.
Samaroff Stokowski, Olga: The Layman s Music Book (New York:
W. W. Norton & Company, 1935). This work, altho written
for the layman, will be of value as an authoritative and ready
reference to all music students. Valuable items are the lists of
books suggested for correlated reading, and musical composi-
tions suggested as illustrations, given at the end of each chapter.
{61 }
OVERTONES
JANUARY 1937
THE
CURTIS INSTITUTE
OF MUSIC
OVERTONES
PUBLISHED BY
THE CURTIS INSTITUTE of MUSIC
RITTENHOUSE SQUARE
PHILADELPHIA • PENNSYLVANIA
Vol. VII— No. I January 1937
OVERTONES
ELSIE HUTT, Editor
Contents
ARTICLES
PAGE
Memories of Ernestine Schumann-Heink Edith Evans Braun 5
Mexican Impressions Carlos Salxedo 9
Consider a Graduate — Editorial 12
Curtis Graduates Everywhere 15
They Toured Europe 20
Concerning the Faculty 21
In Summer We Relax — ? 25
Coming Events 29
Student Activities 32
Social Activities 45
The New Recording Department Gordon Mapes 47
ILLUSTRATIONS
Ernestine Schumann-Heink and Johannes Brahms 4
Madame Schumann-Heink and her Accompanist 8
Dr. Carlos Salzedo 10
Curtis String Quartet and Samuel Barber 14
Valadimir Sokoloff 16
Mrs. Mary Louise Curtis Bok and Mr. Fritz Reiner 24
Gian Carlo Menotti and Samuel Barber 26
Irra Petina 27
Gian Carlo Menotti 31
Alexander McCurdy, Mus. D 43
Cafeteria of The Curtis Institute 46
Permission is granted to reproduce parts of this magazine provided due acknowledgment is made to Overtones. Copyright 1937 by The Curtis
Institute of Music. Printed in the United States of America.
<3>
.M^
ERNESTINE SCHUMANN-HEINK and JOHANNES BRAHMS
Courtesy of Mrs. Braun
by EDITH EVANS BRAUN
ON Christmas Eve in 191 5 we were gathered around a Christmas
tree in the large living room of the San Diego home of Madame
Ernestine Schumann-Heink. The tree was loaded down with all the
things that go to make a happy Yuletide. The great singer was sur-
rounded by her children and grandchildren.
Only one thing marred the occasion, and that was the fact that her
son, Hans, was ill with typhoid fever in the hospital in San Diego.
Nevertheless, a joyous spirit prevailed and after all gifts were ex-
changed the song she had made famous. Holy Night, was reverently
sung by the entire family at the conclusion of the evening.
The next day Madame and her party left for a little excursion to
Riverside. While at Riverside Inn the sad news was received that Hans
was much worse and could not survive.
We started back immediately for San Diego, arriving at the hospital
in the evening, where Madame remained with her boy until he died
at about two o'clock in the morning.
She then made the fourteen-mile trip out to her home on Grossmont
in her car, alone, in those hours of the morning before daylight when
all life seems to be at its low^est ebb.
We were all assembled as she staggered into the living room, a
grief-stricken woman, quite different from the one who had so joy-
ously set forth a short time before.
She spent hours beside the body of her son, and his burial was
accompanied by all the solemn ritual of the High Mass for the dead
of the Catholic Church.
She sang no concerts that January, and her first engagement was at
the White House, upon the invitation of President Wilson.
There had been unprecedented rainfall in California that winter,
so that many of the roads were impassable. We had to allow two days
{5>
OVERTONES
for the motor trip from San Diego to Los Angeles, a trip that ordinarily
took but a few hours. It was really a perilous journey. Bridges were
washed out and highways had disappeared. At night, when it was so
dark we had to cautiously feel our way along the many detours, we
almost went over the mountain side. At times we despaired of ever
reaching our destination.
However, we pulled into the station in Los Angeles one half-hour
before the last train departed that would bring us east in time for
our concert.
We arrived in Washington and gave the concert at the White House
in honor of the Supreme Court Judges and their wives. President Wilson
had been recently married to the attractive Mrs. Boiling. Madame
Schumann-Heink always insisted that the President slept soundly
thru the entire program.
After the United States entered the War Madame devoted most of
her time to singing at Liberty Loan Drives and visiting the camps to
sing for "my boys," as she called the American soldiers. She gave of
herself without stint during this time, altho her oldest son, August,
was in the German Navy, and was eventually killed in a submarine.
Ernestine Schumann-Heink was the daughter of an Austrian officer,
and often described her life as a child, brought up in a military atmos-
phere. Nothing appealed to her more than brass buttons and army life.
Hers was a great personality!
Her brilliant, dark eyes, beautiful, white, wavy hair, fresh skin,
and stocky, vigorous body made an unforgettable impression. Her
energy was incredible!
Altho sixty years of age at that time, she traveled over fifty thou-
sand miles a year. She was a veritable gypsy and only entirely happy
in a train or an automobile. She thought nothing of going from Cali-
fornia to New York for one concert and returning again immediately.
Her chief diversion, when on tour, was to go to the movies. Often
we attended four a day, two in the afternoon, rushing back to the hotel
for dinner, and then two more in the evening.
We were in St. Louis for a concert and had gone to a movie theatre
in a suburb, one evening, to see her favorite actor, William Hart, of
cowboy fame. As our taxi was turning around in front of the theatre
<6>
OVERTONES
to bring us back to our hotel, the engine stalled and a street car, rush-
ing down the hill, struck us and shoved us down the track for several
yards. The impact was so great that it threw Madame to the floor of
the cab striking her back violently on the edge of the seat. She thought
she was dying, for the pain was severe, and she had, in fact, broken
three ribs.
We spent five weeks in the old Planters Hotel there that spring,
while she recuperated, and as she knew Mr. Hart she wrote him a very
humorous letter, blaming him for the accident. He promptly sent her
three photographs of himself saying, to her great delight, that there
was one for each rib.
Madame Schumann-Heink claimed that the finest voices in the
world were American voices, and she often remarked about the excel-
lent vocal teachers we sometimes encountered in little country towns,
who were unknown and unheralded.
She herself had three programs prepared and seldom learned new
songs. If she became interested in a new one, her first question was
always "What story does it tell?" The music was second in importance
to her.
She practically never practiced, occasionally vocalizing, very
lightly, scales and arpeggios that would have done credit to a colora-
tura soprano.
Upon the day of a concert she had her dinner at noon, never eating
before singing, and would order sandwiches in her room before
retiring.
As an interpreter Madame Schumann-Heink had few equals. She
made of each song a tragedy or a comedy, as the text required, creating
a mood, and carrying her audience spellbound with her.
Many critics would say in their reviews that Madame Schumann-
Heink's arrival in a town was like old home week, and her love for her
American public was genuine and deeply felt.
That particular type of diva took herself and her art with the
utmost seriousness. There was never anything casual in her approach
to her work. Everything in her life was sacrificed to her career. It was
an era of the grand manner.
She sometimes spoke of her experience in opera at Hamburg in the
{7>
OVERTONES
At the old Waldorf-Astoria, New York City, 1917
Madame Schumann-H eink gives her accompanist a lesson
in darning
early days, and was very proud of the fact that Brahms, when visiting
his native city, would always ask to hear "die Heink" in Carmen.
Anyone who has heard Madame Schumann-Heink as Erda or
Brangaene can never forget it, for she was brought up in the true Wagner
tradition at Bayreuth.
It was a rare privilege to be associated, for nearly four years, with
such an artist and such a woman!
The author of this article, before her marriage, was accompanist for Madame Ernestine Schumann-
Heink, for nearly four years. Pianist and composer, Mrs. Braun is a member of the Board of Directors of
The Curtis Institute of Music. — Ed.
o>
by CARLOS SALZEDO, MUS. D.
THE evolution of the Mexican public toward "pure" music is rela-
tively recent. It is due chiefly to the remarkable pioneer work of
the composer Carlos Chavez, conductor of the Orqutsta Sinjonka. In
years past, Mexico, like other Latin-American republics, was chiefly
interested in vocal art and occasional virtuosos and string quartets.
With my eminent colleagues, Georges Barrere, flutist, and Horace
Britt, violoncellist, I went to Mexico last spring, at the invitation of
the Sociedad Filannonica, an organization born of Mexico's new musical
consciousness.
Artists visiting Mexico have but two alternatives: pack up after
the first recital, or go on indefinitely with more recitals.
Latins have the reputation of "shooting" their enthusiasm, but it
would be inexact to believe that they do not show their disapproval
with equal sincerity!
An amusing characteristic of Mexican audiences is the sudden
hushing of the applause when it is judged that an artist has been
sufficiently acclaimed.
The Mexican public is as refined as it is eclectic. Rarely in my
career have I experienced a deeper appreciation of the classics of the
XVII and XVIII centuries. As to contemporary music, Mexicans are
not afraid of it. The latest work of Edgar Varese, Density 21. j, which
was played at one of our recitals, was enthusiastically received.
One of the things that impressed me was the difference between
the United States and Mexico in approach, musically speaking. In the
United States a reputation can be built either on legitimate facts or
on false pretense; it is a matter of skillful press work. In Mexico it is
essentially different; one must "pay cash" with one's own potentiality.
Mexican concert-goers think for themselves; music reviewers have
little influence on opinions.
{9}
DR. CARLOS SALZEDO
at the National University of Mexico. Mexico City, at the time of his election as Honorary Professor
of the Superior School of Music June 2, 1936
OVERTONES
Our last two appearances in Mexico were with orchestra, each of us
soloist in a concerto and conducting the orchestra for each other's
performance. The orchestra was the Orquesta Sinfonica de la Universidad.
A tribute of fine comradeship was shown by Jose Rocabruna, conductor
of the orchestra, who offered to occupy the chair of concert master
and played these two concerts under the successive direction of Barrere,
Britt, and myself.
Mexican tradesmen are very much interested in music. Employees
of department stores, restaurants, haberdasheries not only were aware
of our concerts but patronized them. It was quite an amusing experience
to be unable to shop without being recognized.
Following what has become a sentimental tradition, I am planning
to give a new^ w^ork of mine. Scintillation, its first performance at The
Curtis Institute this winter. I have no doubt that its "tempo di rumba"
will be associated with last spring's Mexican sojourn, but as a matter
of fact this rumba rhythm has been in my notebook since 192.9.
The Curtis Institute of Music is host to the Philadelphia Orchestra,
Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy, conductors, for the series of
thirty-nine half-hour concerts broadcast by the Orchestra each Friday
evening over the CBS network, sponsored by The Wessel Company of
Chicago and a coast-to-coast chain of banks. This series, which began
on November 13, 1936, will continue until the end of July. The con-
certs go on the air from Casimir Hall.
{ 11 >
(^Jiitattal
Consider a Graduate. Cloaked in robes of academic dignity,
bearing a scroll of parchment or sheepskin, visible proof of his attain-
ments, he pauses, the words of the commencement ceremonies ringing
in his ears: ". . . . approved by the faculty . . ", ". . . . in recognition
of the honorable and satisfactory completion of your studies . . . ",
". . . . admitting you to all the rights and privileges which pertain to
that degree." He has been smiled upon, his hand pressed, his back
patted. All very agreeable and nice. He is rather pleased with himself.
What now? A Period has definitely come to an end. It has been a
period of constant day-by-day guidance, of being sent here, and told
to do this, and possibly not to do that, of having his daily tasks meted
out to him in the form of lessons. Perhaps during the latter stages of
the period there has been a relaxing of this dictatorship, to the intent
of cultivating a certain independence in preparation for what lies
ahead. Yet there still has been intellectual supervision, direction,
restriction, and compulsion. And unconsciously he has leaned on all
these props and felt safe within these confines.
Now he must fare forth, armed with a quantity of knowledge and
confidence, to seek a place in an enormous crowd of men and women
of superior age and experience, all doing the same work he will do
and treading the same path. It will be very difficult. Competition, to
use a very battered old saw, is fierce. How is he to walk thru that
bustling and somewhat rude crowd, keep both his head and his feet,
pass those laggards who shuffle aimlessly and drift and those weaklings
who stumble and fall, shake off those who would distract and pull
him back, and reach the fewer and more select numbers in the van?
How is he to survive at all? It is a crisis.
Consider a graduate of The Curtis Institute. He has some unique
advantages. To begin with, there are not so many of him that in a
{12>
OVERTONES
year or two he will become but a name somewhere in the official
records. He will not have to penetrate the musical stratosphere or
explode the musical atom to have his alma mater, thru the plaudits
of the world, become aware of him.
To illustrate our point fully, let us assume that the particular
Curtis Institute graduate we are considering has distinguished himself
during his course. Let us, forsooth, make him a composite of all the
virtues of the entire student body. Very well then — he has been chosen
repeatedly by the conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra for solo
parts in performances. He holds some profitable broadcasting contracts.
He has been accepted by the Metropolitan Opera Company. He has
won prizes. He even has a manager.
With all these attainments (which are not unusual amongst the
individuals of the student body) it might be supposed that the paragon
would have no difficulty whatever in establishing himself. Not so!
Between the starting place of graduation and the goal of artistic
arrival, the path of the young musician is strewn with obstacles in the
ugly forms of Prejudice, Ignorance, Suspicion, Antagonism: fixations
in the public mind concerning popular idols whose pedestals are
imperishable; the unpredictable and unaccountable vagaries of audi-
ences; and other and even less tangible menaces to progress.
Survival in the musical world is ultimately a matter of being the
fittest. But even with the most excellent equipment the young musician
may well find himself requiring help beyond his own resources. An
Alpine rope may be the means of saving a life on a jagged mountain
trail, and it is a foolish mountain climber who spurns the services of
a guide.
Now, The Curtis Institute has no magic wand to wave away all
this. But it can and it does stand back of its graduates. It may, or it
may not, be necessary to extend a helping hand. But where help is
needed, and warranted, help is never withheld.
Overtones will be issued twice a school year until further notice,
issues being dated January and May.
{13>
OVE RT O N E S
"Well," I went on, "when will you play for me?" And that child
with the single-track mind answered "When I am ready!'' . . .
Now I come to a picture for which I must give a preface — a Lead-
ing Tone, as it were — with a satisfying Tonic resolution.
It may be interesting to those who see The Curtis Institute as it is
today to know what parts of its present structure are the unique con-
tribution of Josef Hofmann, now its Director.
When I asked him if he would assume the office it was two years
before he consented, and during this time he put much thought and
study on the problem of the school. He had been associated with it
from its founding, as head of the Piano Department and a teacher
himself in that Department.
One of the first questions Josef Hofmann put to himself and to me
was: What should be the purpose of this school? The answer, in his
own words, has ever since been printed in our catalog: fo hand down
thru contemporary fnasters the great traditions of the past — to teach students
to build on this heritage for the future. This might well be called the
Creed of The Curtis Institute.
The purpose defined, Josef Hofmann turned his attention to methods
whereby such a purpose could be achieved. When he assumed the
Directorship, there was a student body numbering 229- Josef Hofmann
has all his life believed in Quality as against Quantity, and he decided
almost at once that if Quality was to rule at The Curtis Institute it
was of primary importance that the number of students be — not
increased — but reduced. He began immediately to work toward the
goal of a smaller and better school, retaining only those students who
seemed most promising and keeping constant watch over the latent
artistic quality of the student body — a policy that has remained his
ever since.
He next pointed out to me the need for students to have the use
oi good instruments in their homes for practice. I saw there was little
use of school lessons if home practicing conditions were inadequate.
Accordingly the Institute purchased Steinway pianos and other instru-
ments to lend to students in need of them, without charge, and this
is still the policy of the school.
{ 14 >
OVE RT O N E S
He instituted public appearance for students during their school
years, believing that young artists should acquire ease and self-
possession thru public performance and be allowed to make their mis-
takes in order to correct them while in the more or less obscure role
of student.
He advocated summer study with teachers, not at the school but
wherever the teachers might be, the summer lessons to be confined to
a two-month period and to be available only to students of outstanding
quality.
Thus Josef Hofmann shaped our school, but the most far-reaching
change was one he suggested to me during the first year he was
Director. It is this picture I want to present to our students.
At this time there was a charge for tuition — five hundred dollars per
year — tho few students paid it in full. . . . We were having tea
together, the Director and I, and there was an unwonted eagerness
about him. He talked rapidly, a little anxiously, and as if something
within his mind had recently clarified, crystallizing into a conviction.
"I have a proposition to make to you," he said, "but I don't
know how it will strike you." "Let's hear it," I said, and added
"Is it so revolutionary?"
"Yes, it is," he replied. He hesitated, then went on with a mount-
ing eagerness. "Why these tuition fees? Practically no one can pay
them in full. With conditions as they are now there is an inequality
of circumstance amongst the students: one pays less, or more, than
another, and word of it gets around somehow; it creates an un-
fortunate atmosphere because something, under it all, doesn't ring
true. Why any tuition fees? There is an endowment. What would
you think of abolishing tuition fees altogether? Then there would be
some pure, fresh air thru these rooms and halls. The students w^ould
know that only their work is of value here, and that all are on an
equal footing."
He was eloquent in pleading the cause of the students, and I knew
at once that he was right. Free tuition, from then on, has been a
prime policy of The Curtis Institute of Music.
<15>
IN THE COLOSSEUM
THE CURTIS STRING QUARTET visits SAMUEL BARBER
Rome, November 1936
OVERTONES
been numerous and have included recitals at the Conservatory of Music
of Lebanon College, Annville, Pennsylvania, the First Evangelical
Congregational Church, Reading, Pennsylvania, Chapin Hall of Wil-
liams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and a dedicatory recital
of the organ at St. Andrew's Church, Mount Holly, New Jersey.
Carl Weinrich, head of the organ department of the Westminster
Choir School, Princeton, New Jersey, is also instructor of organ at
Wellesley College. He gave a recital in the Memorial Chapel at Welles-
ley on Sunday afternoon, October i8th, opening the new organ.
Robert Cato directed a program of organ and choral music at Christ
Church, Philadelphia, on the evening of December 7th. Mr. Cato is
organist and choirmaster at this beloved old church, with its myriad
echoes of bygone events linked in the history of the United States.
The organ at this church is the organ that formerly was in the home
of Mr. Cyrus H. K. Curtis at Wyncote, Pennsylvania, upon which Mr.
Curtis used to play. The organ was given to Christ Church by Mr.
Curtis's daughter, the President of The Curtis Institute. In the program
of December 7th Mr. Cato was assisted by two of his former school-
mates at The Curtis Institute, Flora Bruce Greenwood, harpist, and
Alexander McCurdy, organist. The choral works were given with the
Christ Church boy choir, Mr. Cato conducting.
We hear that Lucie Stern, pianist, has had a successful series of con-
certs in Scandinavia.
Victor Gottlieb is the violoncello of the Coolidge Quartet. This
Quartet played the chamber music of Brahms, with assisting artists,
in a series of eight concerts given thru the courtesy of the Elizabeth
Sprague Coolidge Foundation of the Library of Congress, in the
McMillin Academic Theatre of Columbia University, in November and
December. The Coolidge Quartet plays regularly in the Library of Con-
gress, in Washington.
Philip Frank, violinist, was soloist with the Civic Symphony
Orchestra under the WPA Federal Music Project in Mitten Auditorium,
Philadelphia, November 4th.
Bernard Frank was engaged this season to tour with Ruggiero Ricci
as accompanist.
Eugene Helmer is accompanist for Madame Lea Luboshutz.
{17>
OVERTONES
Jan Savitt, violinist, formerly a member of the Philadelphia Orches-
tra, is now conductor of the studio orchestra of KYW, Philadelphia
station of the NBC system.
Louis Vyner is conductor of the York (Pennsylvania) Symphony
Orchestra, succeeding Sylvan Levin.
Alfred de Long is voice teacher and choral conductor at Western
Maryland College, Westminster, Maryland.
Jean-Marie Robinault and Genia Robinor, pianists, and Virginia
Majewski, violist, are members of the faculty of the Settlement
Music School, Philadelphia.
James Collis, clarinetist, is head of the new department of wood-
wind and brass instruments at the Henry Street Settlement Music
School in New York, of which Miss Grace SpofFord, former Dean of
The Curtis Institute, is Director.
Gama Gilbert, who studied violin at The Curtis Institute, is one of
the New York Posfs music critics.
Orchestra Positions
The road from graduation, for orchestra instrument players, seems
to lead straight from The Curtis Institute to the country's foremost
symphony orchestras, more power to it and them!
When the Philadelphia Orchestra began its current season, under
Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy, four new members were
graduates of The Curtis Institute: Lois Putlitz, violin, Simon Asin,
viola, and Samuel Mayes and Harry Gorodetzer, 'celli.
The Minneapolis Symphony drew Leon Frengut from the ranks of
the Philadelphia Orchestra to its first viola chair, adding later a new
violin, straight from the Institute, Leon Zawisza.
From the National Symphony, Samuel Krauss went to the first
trumpet chair in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and that orchestra
also engaged a former member of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Oscar
Zimmerman, as first double bass. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
engaged Walter Riediger, viola, in December.
The Kansas City (Missouri) Philharmonic Orchestra has Jules Seder
as its first bassoon and Ernani Angelucci as its first French horn.
{ 18 }
OVE RT O N E S
And over in Europe Tibor de Machula, 'cello, has become a member
of the Berlin Philharmonic.
A Publication
Jeanne Behrend's Suite for Piano was published in December by
Elkan-Vogel, Philadelphia. This Suite, entitled From Dawn to Dusk,
depicts events in a child's day — A Birdie with a Yellow Bill, Mother Is
Sad, Because fm Bad, Let's Go Out and Play, Please Tell Us a Story, Father
Comes Home, and Bird at Evening.
HORATIO CONNELL
It was with deep regret that officers, faculty, staff, and students of
The Curtis Institute of Music noted the passing, on November i6,
1936, of Mr. Horatio Connell, for nine years a member of the faculty.
As instructor of voice, Mr. Connell was with us from the opening of
our school in 192.4 until the close of the 193 2.-3 3 season, a highly
respected and genuinely loved member of the Curtis Institute ' 'family. ' '
Fernando Germani, noted Italian organist and former member of
the faculty of The Curtis Institute of Music, has announced a tour of
the United States during January and February.
ERRATUM
Vol. VI, No. I, May, 1936 — p. 52., 1. 16: "Frankfurt-am-M^/w."
{19>
J-yicu J-ait'teJi C^ittap
H.'cape
J-ke i^uttiA <=>ttLnq ^^uattet
THERE are two kinds of European concert tours. First, tours of
Europe by those living in Europe. Second, tours of Europe by
those having to cross an ocean to reach Europe.
Between August and January, eight young American musicians,
graduates of The Curtis Institute of Music, made tours of the second
variety: Rose Bampton, Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano; Shura
Cherkassky, pianist; Oskar Shumsky, violinist; Jascha Brodsky,
Charles Jaffe, Max Aronoff, and Orlando Cole, who comprise the
Curtis String Quartet; and Vladimir SokolofF, accompanist for Mr.
Efrem Zimbalist.
Miss Bampton 's tour consisted of recitals, orchestral solo and guest
operatic appearances, and radio performances scattered over London,
The Hague, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Gothenburg, Munich, Stock-
holm, Prague, and Vienna.
Mr. Cherkassky, whose stay on the continent is len-gthening indefi-
nitely, due to added engagements and re-engagements as he goes along,
is appearing in most of Europe's principal cities and musical centers.
Oskar Shumsky gave recitals in Budapest, Prague, Vienna, Warsaw,
Wilno, Stockholm, and London, and had for his accompanist none
other than the accompanist of Mr. Efrem Zimbalist. Mr. Zimbalist,
Shumsky's teacher at The Curtis Institute, in the utmost spirit of
friendly cooperation, lent his accompanist, in the middle of a concert
tour, to his pupil, and engaged for himself another, in order to fill
the rest of his European engagements.
The Curtis String Quartet gave recitals in Budapest, Vienna, Am-
sterdam, The Hague, Brussels, Milan, Rome, Oxford, Cambridge, and
London, and broadcast from Amsterdam and Vienna.
{ 20 >
y^^ancetmita tke <::^acitltu
A BOOK larger than overtones would be needed for the recording
. of the concert activities of Curtis Institute teachers. It is very-
meet that we observe them, scarcely within our scope that we "cover"
them.
Dr. Josef Hofmann's winter will be another one of constant public
appearance, with extensive tours that began early in the autumn.
Mr. Efrem Zimbalist toured Europe from late summer until the end
of November, and marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of his American
debut, somewhat belatedly, with a recital in Carnegie Hall, New York
City, on December 8th, with Mr. Samuel ChotzinofFat the piano. Mr.
Zimbalist appeared for the first time in the United States October 2.7,
191 1, when he was soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Max
Fiedler, conductor. Mr. Zimbalist played on that occasion Gla-
zounofF's Concerto, Opus 82., which is dedicated to the late Professor
Leopold Auer. The Beethoven Association (New York City) honored
Mr. Zimbalist 's twenty-five years of artistic renown in the United
States with a dinner on December 5 th.
Mr. Fritz Reiner conducted German opera for the San Francisco
Opera Company in the War Memorial Auditorium in October and
November, with such singers as Flagstad, Lehmann, Melchior on the
stage, and was guest conductor of the Detroit Symphony in December.
One of Mr. Felix Salmond's recent appearances was in Toronto
with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Carlos Salzedo and Mr. Harry Kaufman are concertizing with
their respective trios, the Barrere-Salzedo-Britt and the Bolognini-
Britt-Kaufman. The New York debut of the latter occurred November
i6th in Town Hall, a Beethoven Association event.
Madame Lea Luboshutz left Philadelphia December 19th to fill
concert engagements in Florida and Cuba.
(21>
OVERTONES
They Appear in Casimir Hall
On Monday evening, November 9th, Mr. Felix Salmond, violoncel-
list, and Mr. Harry Kaufman, pianist, collaborating, gave a recital in
Casimir Hall, of The Curtis Institute. Opening the program w^ith the
Adagio movement from Mendelssohn-Bartholody's Sonata in D, Opus
58, Mr. Salmond and Mr. Kaufman proceeded to a performance of the
Sonata in C of Haydn. And then follow^ed the Sonata in C minor of
Samuel Barber, Curtis graduate and Rome and Pulitzer prize-winner,
with Ralph Berkowitz, graduate under Mr. Kaufman in accompanying,
playing the piano part of this work. The Sonata in D minor of Debussy
and the Sonata in A major of Cesar Franck were played by Mr. Salmond
and Mr. Kaufman to complete the program. This was the first of the
regular series of faculty recitals.
On Wednesday evening, November 2.5th, Barrere-Salzedo-Britt pre-
sented a concert to The Curtis Institute of Music. We were happy to
welcome the guests, Mr. Georges Barrere and Mr. Horace Britt, to our
hall. Mr. Barrere, flutist, is a member of the faculty of the Juilliard
Graduate School. Mr. Britt taught violoncello at The Curtis Institute
in the first year of its existence, 192.4-2.5. The concert began with two
numbers played by Barrere-Salzedo-Britt, the Trio-Sonata of Pietro
Locatelli and three Pieces en concert (La Timide, U Indiscrete, and Tam-
hourins) of Rameau. Mr. Britt then played the Adagio and Allegro from
Boccherini's Sonata No. 6 in A major, with harp accompaniment by
Dr. Salzedo. The next portion of the program was for harp alone,
consisting of Dr. Salzedo 's transcription of The Harmonious Blacksmith
of Handel and six of his own Short Stories in Music entitled separately
Madonna and Child, Night Breeze, Pirouetting Music Box, Behind the Bar-
racks, Goldfish, and Skipping Rope. Mr. Barrere's flute then was heard in
Airs de Ballet from Saint-Saens's Ascanio and the Fantaisie of Faure,
played with Dr. Salzedo at the piano. Debussy's Children's Corner,
transcribed for harp, flute and 'cello by Dr. Salzedo, was played by the
three gentlemen as the final number of the program.
Madame Lea Luboshutz, violinist, gave a recital in Casimir Hall
on Monday evening, December yth. Opening her program with Sonata
in D major, Vivaldi-Respighi, with Eugene Helmer, graduate in
{21}
OVERTONES
accompanying, at the piano, Madame Luboshutz proceeded to the
Sonata in G minor of Johann Sebastian Bach, for violin alone. Mr.
Harry Kaufman came to the piano for a performance of the Sonata in
G major of Johannes Brahms, after which Madame Luboshutz concluded
her recital with a group of four short pieces with Mr. Helmer again at
the piano: Andante rubato alia lingaresca (Dohnanyi), Gypsy Caprice
(Kreisler), Moto Perpetuo (Godowsky), and Caprice, No. 2.4 (Paganini-
Aucr). Piano accompaniment for the last was played this evening by
Mr. Helmer, his own arrangement. This recital was the second of
the faculty recital series. Professor Leopold Godowsky was in the
audience.
Dr. Ernst Lett lectured on "Producing Der King des Nibelungen "
for the Richard Wagner Society at the Hotel Barbizon, New York
City, in October.
Madame Renee Longy Miquelle's book entitled Music Fundamentals,
involving the principles that she uses in her courses at The Curtis
Institute of Music, has been published by Elkan-Vogel, Philadelphia.
Dr. Carlos Salzedo's latest work, Tiny Tales for Harpist Beginners, is
being published by Elkan-Vogel. Ten Tiny Tales, comprising the first
series, have already appeared: In Hoopskirts, The Little Princess and the
Dancing Master, A Little Orphan in the Snow, Lullaby for a Doll, The
Cloister at Twilight, A Mysterious Blue Light, Funeral Procession of a Tin
Soldier, The Chimes in the Steeple, A Lost Kitten, and Pagoda of the Dragon.
A newcomer in the faculty of The Curtis Institute of Music is
Ruvin Heifetz, father of Jascha Heifetz. Instructor of violin, Mr.
Heifetz the elder took up his duties at The Curtis Institute at the
opening of the school September x8th.
{23>
MRS. MARY LOUISE CURTIS BOK greets MR. FRITZ REINER
Brown's Hotel, London, June 1936
cr^/^t c^afUfi^et l/l/e u<^elax, . . . ;
WITH the "growing up" of students comes a metamorphosis in
relationships. To illustrate: Josef Hofmann and Irra Petina
come across each other in Buenos Aires. Each is visiting the city pro-
fessionally. They are then, as Dr. Hofmann himself puts it, not Director
and student of The Curtis Institute but colleagues.
We think finding one's teacher or one's pupil, or one's associate's
teacher or pupil, in Kalamazoo, giving a concert in the hall around
the corner, or in the very same hall where one is billed to appear one-
self, must be both a thrill and a satisfaction. And there are so many
Curtis Institute teachers and former students — and students — concertiz-
ing that these meetings must always be taking place. Actually, ix. is a
small musical world, after all.
And we have, at The Curtis Institute, the perplexing question:
When is a student not a student? The answer seems to be: When he is
practicing his profession.
Summer 1936 fairly teemed with the peregrinations hither and yon
of Curtis Institute people bent upon more or less musical pursuits.
This year the President herself took to the sea and cruised the Arctic
Circle.
Looming high amongst professional travels was Dr. Hofmann 's
monumental South American tour.
Mr. Reiner conducted opera at Convent Garden in June.
Mr. ^Izedo, with his confreres, Messrs. Britt and Barrere, was
made an honorary professor of the University of Mexico, during
Barr^re-Salzedo-Britt's musical invasion of the land of the tortilla,
and at practically the same time was given, in absentia, an honorary
Doctor of Music degree by the Zeck wer-Hahn Academy in Philadelphia .
Jorge Bolet, Curtis graduate, gave two piano recitals in Havana.
Jorge, by the way, is back at The Curtis Institute, studying, this time,
conducting.
<25>
OVERTONES
At his Castello di Montestrutto, in Italy, Mr. Scalero spent the summer
in the familiar atmosphere of home and the classroom, with several
of his Curtis Institute students basking in the light of his teaching.
And in Italy also, for the summer, was an outstanding vocal student,
Fritz Krueger, sent there by The Curtis Institute for the purpose of
obtaining a greater knowledge of the Italian language and musical
feeling.
Mr. de Gogorza and Mr. Tabu-
teau are too thoroly European not
to hasten back across the water as
soon as their work on the American
side of the Atlantic is ended.
Agnes Davis summered in the
Dolomites, and Joseph Levine, on
his first trip to Europe, had a lot of
fun popping up unexpectedly on his
friends in all sorts of places.
Salzburg attracted several Curtis
folk, including Dr. Bailly, Max
Pons, and Elizabeth Westmoreland,
and Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo
Menotti rented the cottage of an
Austrian hunter in St. Wolfgang to
be convenient for the Festival and
remained until November, immersed in composing and peace.
Bayreuth was visited by Mr. Menotti and Mr. Barber, and also by a
member of Curtis Institute's academic faculty, Mrs. Daniel Shumway,
and her distinguished husband of the Pennsylvania University. The
two composers called at Wahnfried and had an interesting chat with
Frau Winifred Wagner.
Opera in Buenos Aires
Irra Petina's South American summer deserves more than casual
reference. This vivid Russian soprano of the Metropolitan had a very
successful season of opera, from June thru October, at the TeatroColon
in Buenos Aires, appearing in Kigoletto, Contes d' Hoffman, Der Fliegende
GIAN CARLO MENOTTI and SAMUEL BARBER
in Auslria, Summer of 1936
{ 16}
OVE RT O N E S
Hollander, Parsifal, NozZf di
Figaro, Die Fledermaus, Mad-
ama Butterfly, and Rameau's
Castor et Pollux, under Ettore
Panizza, Fritz Busch, Emil
Cooper, and other conductors .
She was soloist also in Bee-
thoven's Ninth Symphony
given by Mr. Busch and the
Colon Orchestra and chorus.
The company gave some per-
formances in Montevideo,
Uruguay, and Miss Petina
appeared in Kigoletto and
Noz,Zf di Figaro. Incidentally,
this makes four continents
upon which she has sung.
But Curtis Institutites did
not have to go abroad to
engage in musical activity. In
our own home town the
Curtis graduates Eugene
Loewenthal, Wilbur Evans,
Abrasha Robofsky, and
Edwina Eustis appeared in Robin Hood Dell opera under Alexander
Smallens. Natalie Bodanskaya (who, in the Metropolitan, later changed
her name to Bodanya to avoid confusion with another singer), Conrad
Thibault and Martha Halbwachs Massena (who is both a graduate
pianist and a member of the faculty) appeared as soloists in the Dell
symphony concerts under Eraser Harrison, Willem van Hoogstraten,
and Jose Iturbi, respectively. A student. Vera ResnikofF, appeared in
the Dell opera, and another student, Robert Topping, was soloist in
the Beethoven Ninth Symphony conducted by Mr. Iturbi. "Our" Saul
Caston was ballet conductor for the Robin Hood Dell season.
William Harms, pianist, appeared with Mr. Iturbi in the Lewisohn
Stadium as soloist in the Liszt E flat Concerto. Edwina Eustis sang the
After a rehearsal
IRRA PETINA— in Montevideo
Summer of 1936
{11}
OVERTONES
title role in Carmen in the Stadium under Mr. Smallens.
Mr. Harry Kaufman did some private teaching at his home in
Westport, Connecticut, and made several appearances with the Gordon
String Quartet and as a member of the newly formed Bolognini-Britt-
Kaufman Trio.
In Rockport and Camden, Maine, there has grown a sizable non-
official Curtis Institute summer colony. The summer homes of Mrs.
Bok, the Hofmanns, Mr. and Mrs. John Braun, and Carlos Salzedo
and Lucile Lawrence perhaps have been responsible. A cottage on the
rocky cliffs of Rockport harbor annually has Madame Lea Luboshutz
as its tenant, and the Felix Salmonds each summer occupy "The Stone
House' ' but a short distance below. The Curtis String Quartet is usually
to be found somewhere in the vicinity, Madame Isabelle Vengerova,
Boris Goldovsky and his wife, Margaret Codd, Shura Cherkassky,
Nadia Reisenberg, and William Harms are frequently to be seen, and
a whole flock of harpists annually surrounds the Salzedos.
The Return of the ''Natives^'
The artists in the community, both Curtis and non-Curtis, united
in staging a welcome-home celebration in honor of Mrs. Bok, and Dr.
and Mrs. Hofmann, after their return from their respective travels at
opposite ends of the glode. This was a colorful affair, done with a
professional touch, the versatile celebrators presenting entertainment
in a metier one would have supposed was entirely foreign to their tal-
ents. For example: the solo Spanish dancer was recognized as Madame
Lea Luboshutz, the warbler of Cockney songs was seen to be Mr.
Felix Salmond, and the sonorous Russian choir was composed entirely
of instrumentalists, presumably more at home with strings and bows.
Naturally, in the Rockport-Camden community, music abounds.
Madame Luboshutz, Mr. Salmond, and Mr. Goldovsky on numerous
occasions have played as a trio, and did this year in the Camden Opera
House, with Nadia Reisenberg appearing in the same program. Shura
Cherkassky appeared in the Camden Opera House and also in the
Rockport Town Hall. The Curtis String Quartet gave three concerts
in Captain Eells's alluringly atmospherical "boat barn," in Rockport,
assisted in one program by Mrs. Braun.
And thus, in summer, we relax!
{ 28 }
K^an^Li^a (^veitt
The Curtis String Quartet will have Dr. Josef Hofmann and Mr.
Felix Salmond as guest artists in concerts to be given this winter and
spring. One of these, in which Dr. Hofmann will play the Brahms
piano quintet, will be given in Town Hall, New York City, for the
Beethoven Association, April 12th. The first of these concerts, with
Mr. Salmond playing the Schubert quintet, takes place at the Washing-
ton Irving High School, New York City, January 22nd. Other concerts,
with Dr. Hofmann and Mr. Salmond, will be given in Philadelphia.
Samuel Barber's Symphony will be given its American premiere
by Dr. Artur Rodzinski in Cleveland, with the Cleveland Symphony
Orchestra, in January. Dr. Rodzinski will also perform the Symphony
in New York with the Philharmonic.
jEANNEBEHREND,pianistandcomposer,will give a recital inCarnegie
Hall, New York City, February 1st, in which she will play her Sonata.
EuDicE Shapiro, violinist, will make her professional debut in
Town Hall, New York City, on Wednesday afternoon, February 3rd.
Lucie Stern, pianist, will give a recital in Town Hall, New York
City, on Monday afternoon, February 15th.
Alexander McCurdy, organist, is touring the south in January
and will go to Texas and the Pacific coast on tour in the spring.
Carl Weinrich, organist, has announced a transcontinental tour
in January and February.
Agnes Davis, soprano, is booked for two tours, her own, and a tour
with Charles Hackett, with whom she appeared in joint recitals a
year ago. She has been engaged by the Philadelphia Orchestra to sing
the soprano solo part in Rachmaninoff's orchestral and choral work,
The Bells, which is to be given in January in New York, Philadelphia,
Washington, and Baltimore, under Eugene Ormandy, and for the per-
formances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in March, also under Mr.
Ormandy; and by the New York Philharmonic for the soprano part
in a performance of Honegger's King David with Dr. Artur Rodzinski.
{ 29 >
OVERTONES
Nadia Reisenberg, pianist, sails in January for Europe and will
tour Austria, Hungary, Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, Sweden, Finland,
and England.
Genia Robinor, pianist, will tour Europe with her former instructor
in chamber music at The Curtis Institute, Dr. Louis Bailly, giving a
series of sonata recitals. In London, these artists will appear three
times. Miss Robinor giving a piano recital, Dr. Bailly a viola recital,
and the two collaborating in a piano-viola recital. Miss Robinor and
Dr. Bailly also will give a joint recital in Town Hall, New York City,
on March 23rd.
IsoBriselli, violinist,, will be soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra
under Mr. Eugene Ormandy on January 22nd and 23rd, playing the
Beethoven Concerto.
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra has been engaged to accompany
the Philadelphia Ballet in two performances of Tschaikowsky's The
Sleeping Princess in the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, on February
8th and 12th. The performance on February 8th, which is for the
Philadelphia Forum, will be the American premiere of the ballet.
Boris Goldovsky will conduct both performances. Catherine Littlefield
is the premiere danseuse of the ballet company, formerly known by her
name.
Two students, Fritz Krueger, tenor, and Ellwood Hawkins, bar-
itone, will be soloists with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the per-
formances of Rachmaninoff's The Bells with Mr. Ormandy in January.
Three students, Elsie MacFarlane, contralto, Fritz Krueger, tenor,
and Ellwood Hawkins, baritone, have been engaged by the Philadelphia
Orchestra to sing solo parts in performances of Beethoven's Ninth
Symphony with Mr. Ormandy in March.
Ezra Rachlin, pianist (student), is to give a recital on February 7th
at the Washington Irving High School, New York City, one of the
annual series of concerts sponsored by that school.
GiAN Carlo Menotti's opera Amelia al Ballo is to be produced.
Amelia is the first opera to be composed by a Curtis Institute graduate.
{ 30 >
OVERTONES
It is an opera huff a in one act, music
and libretto both by Mr. Menotti.
The premiere will take place in the
Academy of Music, Philadelphia,
April 1, 1937. Mr. Fritz Reiner
will conduct. The Curtis Institute
is presenting this production. Pre-
ceding Amelia will be a perform-
ance of Milhaud's he Pauvre Mate-
lot, also a presentation of The
Curtis Institute. Both operas will
be given in English.
The Curtis Institute has sched-
uled two concerts of chamber mu-
sic under Dr. Louis Bailly, the
first to be given in the Philadel-
phia Museum of Art, Fairmount,
Philadelphia, on Sunday evening,
April 18th, the other to be given
in Town Hall, New York City, on
April 26th.
CI AN CARLO MENOTTI
at the Jijgerhaus in St. Wolfgang
Summer of 1936
Mrs. Mary Louise Curtis Bok, founder and President of The Curtis
Institute of Music, has accepted an appointment as Trustee of Colby
College, Waterville, Maine.
{31>
c^tadent <=^cttvuce^
Casimir Hall
THREE of Madame Lea Luboshutz's students in violin gave a concert
in Casimir Hall on Monday evening, November 23rd. Norman
Serken opened the program, playing Sonata No. 1, in A major, of Georg
Friedrich Handel. Ralph SchaefFer then played Ernest Chausson's
Poeme, after which Rafael Druian, one of the younger students of the
school, performed Edward Elgar's Concerto in B minor, Opus 61. The
concluding portion of the program consisted of three shorter works —
The Dew is Sparkling (Rubinstein-Elman), Danse Espagnole from La Vida
Breve (deFalla-Kreisler), and Perpetiium Mobile (Ottokar Novacek) —
played by Ralph SchaefFer. Eugene Helmer, graduate in accompanying
under Mr. Harry Kaufman, was at the piano for the entire program.
Kadio
The annual series of concerts broadcast on Wednesday afternoons
at four o'clock (Eastern Standard Time) by students over the CBS
network, from Casimir Hall, opened with a concert by the Curtis
Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner conductor, on October 14th. With
Mr. Reiner conducting, the Orchestra played the Overture to Weber's
Der Freisch'utzj three Slavonic Dances of Dvorak (Opus 46, No. 6, in D;
Opus 72, No. 2, in E minor; Opus 46, No. 8, in G minor); Canzonefta,
Opus 62a, and Marche from Karelia Suite — Sibelius; and five Russian
Dances of A. Tscherepnin.
On October 21st, Marjorie Call, student of harp with Dr. Carlos
Salzedo, opened the broadcast with Grandjany's fantaisies on French
folk songs Le bon petit rot d'Yvetot and Et ron ron ron, petit patapon,
followed by Debussy's Lafille aux cheveux de lin, Palmgren's May Night,
and her teacher's On Donkey-Back, Pirouetting Music Box, Night Breeze,
and Behind the Barracks, from his Short Stories in Music. These works
are all for harp alone. A group of vocal solos followed, sung by Char-
{32>
OVERTONES
lotte Ridley, soprano, graduate under Miss Harriet van Emden. Miss
Ridley's songs were: Carpenter's The Sleep that Flits on Baby's Eyes
and When I Bring to You Color d Toys, and Marx's Selige Nacht and Hat
dich die Liebe heriihrt. Leonard Rose, student of violoncello with Mr.
Felix Salmond, concluded the program with the Adagio from Haydn's
Concerto in D, the Interme'i^o from Lalo's Concerto in D, and Cassado's
Kequiebros. Ralph Berkowitz, graduate in accompanying under Mr.
Harry Kaufman, played accompaniments for the voice and 'cello solos.
Graduates occasionally perform as "guests" in the Curtis Institute
radio "hour." The October 28th concert brought one to the air, Oskar
Shumsky, violinist. The program opened with the aria Celeste Aida
from Verdi's opera Aida, sung by Fritz Krueger, student of voice with
Mr. Emilio de Gogorza. Mr. Shumsky, who studied with the late
Professor Leopold Auer and Mr. Efrem Zimbalist, graduating under
the latter, then performed the Sonata in D major of Vivaldi-Respighi.
Returning to the microphone, Mr. Krueger continued the program
with Schubert's An die Leier and Nacht und Trdume, Schumann's Wander-
lied, the old English song Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, arranged
by Quilter, GrifFes's Lament of Ian the Proud, and Clouds by Charles.
Mr. Shumsky concluded the concert, playing the Adagio of Friedmann
Bach-Kreisler, Debussy's En bateau, Elgar's La capricieuse. Opus 17,
and L'Alouette — Glinka-Balakireff-Auer. Ethel Evans was accompanist
for Mr. Shumsky, Oscar Eiermann for Mr. Krueger. Miss Evans and
Mr. Eiermann are students of accompanying with Mr. Harry Kaufman.
The program November 4th was for piano and voice solos. Ezra
Rachlin, student of piano with Mr. David Saperton, played for his
first group Etudes and Preludes of Chopin — the Etudes in G flat major,
Opus 10, No. 5; in F minor; and in G flat major, Opus 25, No. 9; and
Preludes No. 2, in A minor. No. 14, in E flat minor. No. 23, in F major,
and No. 24, in D minor. Opus 28. Selma Amansky, soprano, graduate
under Miss Harriet van Emden, sang the Kitorna vincitor aria from
Aida, Cimara's Non piu, and Tirindelli's Portami via, after which Mr.
Rachlin's second group was heard. This consisted of Rachmaninoff's
Prelude in G sharp minor. Opus 32, No. 12; deFalla's Andalu^a, Godow-
sky's Nocturnal Tangier, and Dohnanyi's Capriccio, Opus 28, No. 6.
Miss Amansky concluded the program with Wagner's Trdume, Weaver's
03>
OVERTONES
Moon-Marketing, Chasins's Dreams, and Hageman's At the Well. Eugene
Helmer, graduate under Mr. Harry Kaufman, was accompanist for
Miss Amansky.
November 11th brought the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Fritz
Reiner, conductor, again to the air. The program consisted of Gold-
mark's Im Fruhling Overture, an excerpt from Tannh'auser, Act II — the
Dich, teure Halle aria, Selma Amansky soloist — and Mozart's "Jupiter"
Symphony. Boris Goldovsky, graduate and assistant to Mr. Reiner,
conducted.
Eudice Shapiro, violinist, graduate under Mr. Efrem Zimbalist,
was "guest" on November 18th. She played the first movement from
Dohnanyi's Sonata, Opus 21, and the prayer ^'Vouchsafe Lord" from
Handel's Te Deum, the Kreisler transcription ofGodowsky's Nocturnal
Tangier, and a Caprice after one of Saint Saens's Etudes, in the form of a
waltz, by Eugene Ysaye. Miss Shapiro was accompanied at the piano
by Ethel Evans, pupil of Mr. Kaufman. Elsie MacFarlane, contralto,
pupil of Miss Harriet van Emden, also was heard in this program,
singing as her first group five songs of Johannes Brahms : Liebestreu,
Bei dir sind meine Gedanken, Sapphische Ode, Me in wundes Herz verlangt,
and Der Schmied; and turning to French and English for her final num-
bers: Extase (Duparc), Quel galant (Ravel), By a Lonely Forest Pathway
(Charles GrifFes), and an adaptation of an old Norwegian folk song
My Lover he comes on the Skee (Henry Clough-Leighter), the last two
songs being works of American composers. Oscar Eiermann was accom-
panist for Miss MacFarlane.
The November 25th broadcast was a program by the chamber
music department under the artistic direction of Dr. Louis Bailly.
The Casimir Quartet, composed of Eudice Shapiro and David Frisina,
violins, Virginia Majewski, viola, and Leonard Rose, 'cello, per-
formed the Haydn Quartette, Opus 76, No. 5, and the '' Aserbaidjan'
Quartette (No. 4) of the Soviet composer B. Karagitcheff. Suite No. 1
of J. Engel, also of Soviet Russia, was played as the concluding gfoup
by a chamber music ensemble conducted by Dr. Bailly. The arrange-
ment for strings and clarinet by S. Beilsson was used. This Suite con-
sists of six parts entitled Melody, Lullaby of Love, Zockl (a dance),
Melody of Marriage, Skotschne (a dance), and Plaska (also a dance). The
•{ 34)
OVERTONES
students making up the ensemble were Abe Portnoy, clarinet, Eugene
Csircsu, Julius Schulman, David Frisina, and Edward Matyi, violins,
Virginia Majewski and David Schwartz, violas, Paul Bergstrom and
Robert Zapf, 'celli, and Lewis Knowles, double-bass.
The following week, on December 2nd, the Curtis Symphony
Orchestra broadcast. The concert was conducted by Mr. Fritz Reiner,
returned from the Pacific coast. Eudice Shapiro, graduate violinist,
and Leonard Rose, student 'cellist with Mr. Felix Salmond, were solo-
ists, playing the first movement from the Brahms Concerto in A minor,
Opus 102, with the Orchestra. The concert opened with Bach's Toccata
and Fugue in D minor transcribed by Leonardi. The concluding number
was William Turner Walton's Fagade.
On December 9th Jorge Bolet, pianist, was "guest" in the Curtis
Institute "hour." The program featured works of Franz Liszt, com-
memorating the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the pianist-
composer's birth and the fiftieth anniversary of his death. Mr. Bolet,
who is a graduate in piano under Mr. David Saperton, opened the
concert with Liszt's Fantasie and Fugue in G minor on a Bach Chorale.
Barbara Thorne, soprano, pupil of Miss Harriet van Emden, then sang
Es muss ein Wunderbares sein, Du hist ivie eine Blume, and Die Lorelei,
with Ethel Evans, pupil of Mr. Harry Kaufman, at the piano. Return-
ing to the piano, Mr. Bolet played the Liebestratim, Waldesrauschen,
Valse impromptu, and La Campanella, which brought the concert to a
conclusion.
Students of Dr. Louis Bailly in chamber music gave the concert
of December 16th. Mozart's Quintet in A major for clarinet and string
quartet was played by Abe Portnoy, clarinet, Julius Schulman and
Rafael Druian, violins, Samuel Singer, viola, and Herman Grosser,
violoncello; and the Scherbo and Finale of Mendelssohn's Piano Trio,
Opus 49, was played by Annette Elkanova, piano, Frederick Vogelge-
sang, violin, and Leonard Rose, violoncello.
The December 23rd concert was a Christmas program, featuring the
organ and voice departments. Richard Purvis, organist, pupil of Dr.
Alexander McCurdy, opened the program with the Bach Chorale
Preludes In Dulci Jubilo and Christians Rejoice, and Dupre's In Dulci
Jubilo and the Finale from Variations sur un Noel. A mixed chorus then
05>
OVERTONES
sang two carols (Old Welsh and Russian), Hoist's Christmas Day,
Leopold Stokowski's When Christ ivas Born, and a Gascon carol Infant
so Gentle. Frances McCollin's Sleep, Holy Babe, soprano solo, was sung
by Barbara Thorne, student with Miss Harriet van Emden. Another
group by the chorus followed : While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
by Night (Old English), From Highest Heaven to Earth We Come (Old
German), Jewell's Would I had been a Shepherd and tender Babe Jesus,
At Midnight a Summons Came (Old French) and Little Jesu of Broga (Old
Portuguese). Some of these were sung acapella, some with organ and
string ensemble accompaniment. At the close of the program, Mr.
Purvis played an improvisation on three carols: Silent Night, Hark! the
Herald Angels Sing, and Adeste Fidel is. Mr. Sylvan Levin conducted
the chorus.
The radio "signature" played at each of these concerts is Dr. Josef
Hofmann's Berceuse, Opus 20, No. 5- It is the custom for graduates to
play the signature, and thus far William Harms and Joseph Levine,
graduates under Dr. Hofmann, have supplied the musical identification
of the Curtis Institute hour.
Concert Course
The Concert Course consists of a series of concerts, by students ap-
pearing as soloists and in various group formations, given for a list
of schools, colleges, woman's clubs, and various other organizations
lying within a practicable distance of Philadelphia. In general, stu-
dents appear for small fees. Occasionally a graduate is sent out that
he may obtain additional practical experience looking toward an
important engagement.
At the beginning of the present school year, thirty concerts were
booked, to be given between the first of October and the end of May.
The course includes, this year, a series of musicales at The Barclay
(Philadelphia), organized by a group of women music lovers.
{ 36 >
OVERTONES
The Concert Course schedule, up to the Christmas holidays, follows
October 6, 1936— for the Woman's Club, Penns Grove, New Jersey
Kurt Polnarioff, violinist
Oscar Eiermann, accompanist
October 7, 1936 — for "The Neighbors," Hatboro, Pennsylvania
lEudice Shapiro, violinist
Jane Shoaf, soprano
Joseph Levine, pianist
October 17, 1936— at Westtown School, Westtown, Pennsylvania
Annette Elkanova, pianist
^Leonard Treash, bass-baritone
Kurt Polnarioff, violinist
Oscar Eiermann, accompanist
October 27, 1936 — for the Woman's Club, Chester, Pennsylvania
^Trio Classique
Eudice Shapiro, violin
Virginia Majewski, viola
Ardelle Hookins, flute
October 31, 1936 — at ^Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
Marjorie Call, harpist
Reinhardt Elster, harpist
Leonard Rose, violoncellist
November 6, 1936 — at Westtown School, Westtown, Pennsylvania
lEudice Shapiro, violinist
Ethel Evans, accompanist
November 9, 1936 — for the Mary Gaston Barnwell Foundation
at the Penn Athletic Club, Philadelphia
lEudice Shapiro, violinist
Fritz Krueger, tenor
Leonard Rose, violoncellist
^Eugene Helmer, accompanist
^Graduate.
^Miss Shapiro, Miss Majewski, and Miss Hookins are graduates in their respective instruments.
^Miss Call and Mr. Elster played music arranged for two harps, Mr. Rose played solos to harp accom-
paniment by Mr. Elster, and Miss Call solos for harp alone.
{37>
OVERTONES
November 10, 1936 — at State Teachers College, Kutztown, Pennsylvania
^Violin — Violoncello — Piano Trio
Frederick Vogelgesang, violin
Leonard Rose, violoncello
Annette Elkanova, piano
Oscar Eiermann, accompanist
November 13, 1936 — at the Friends' School, Media, Pennsylvania
^Violin — Violoncello— Piano Trio
Frederick Vogelgesang, violin
Leonard Rose, violoncello
Annette Elkanova, piano
Oscar Eiermann, accompanist
November 14, 1936 — at The Birmingham School, Birmingham,
Pennsylvania
^Violin — Violoncello — Piano Trio
Frederick Vogelgesang, violin
Leonard Rose, violoncello
Sol Kaplan, piano
November 16, 1936 — at The Barclay, Philadelphia
Vogelgesang — Rose — Kaplan Trio
for Violin, Violoncello and Piano
November 19, 1936 — at the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware
Elsie MacFarlane, contralto
Fritz Krueger, tenor
^Eudice Shapiro, violinist
Oscar Eiermann, accompanist
November 19, 1936 — for the Everywoman's Club, Glenside, Pennsylvania
Vogelgesang — Rose — Kaplan Trio
for Violin, Violoncello and Piano
Burnett Atkinson, flute
*The trio performed as an ensemble and the members also performed as soloists in these programs.
^The trio performed as an ensemble and the members also performed as soloists, Mr. Kaplan acting as
accompanist.
^Graduate.
{ 38 >
OVERTONES
November 20, 1936 — for the Porch Club, Riverton, New Jersey
''Opera Scenes
Charlotte Daniels, soprano
Jane Shoaf, soprano
Elsie MacFarlane, contralto
Fritz Krueger, tenor
Leonard Treash, bass-baritone
Elizabeth Westmoreland, accompanist
November 23, 1936 — at ^Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown,
Pennsylvania
Eudice Shapiro, violinist
Leonard Treash, bass-baritone
Joseph Levine, pianist
November 30, 1936 — at The Barclay, Philadelphia
Fritz Krueger, tenor
Elizabeth Bentley, accompanist
December 16, 1936 — for the Everywoman's Club, Glenside, Pennsylvania
Reinhardt Elster, harpist
December 21, 1936 — at The Barclay, Philadelphia
Sidney Finkelstein, pianist
December 28, 1936 — at The Barclay, Philadelphia
Lester Englander, baritone
^Richard Purvis, accompanist
''This program, given in costume, with scenery, consisted of the "garden" scene from Act III of Faust
(Gounod), performed by Miss Daniels (Marguerite), Miss Shoaf (SiebeF), Miss MacFarlane (jNiartha), Mr.
Krueger (_Faust~), and Mr. Treash (Mephisto); the "spinning" scene at the farm house. Act II of Martha
(Flotow), with Miss Shoaf as Martha, Miss Daniels as Nancy, Mr. Krueger as Lionel, and Mr. Treash as
Plunkett; and the "fair" scene from The Bartered Bride (Smetana), in which Miss Daniels appeared as Marie
and Mr. Krueger as Wenzel. Miss Daniels, Miss Westmoreland, and Mr. Treash arc graduates. Miss West-
moreland a member of the faculty (vocal coach).
^his program consisted of violin, bass-baritone, and piano solos, with Mr. Levine acting as accom-
panist besides appearing in his own right as pianist. All three young artists are graduates.
'Richard Purvis is a student of organ with Dr. McCurdy. On this occasion he accompanied Mr. Englander
at the piano.
{39>
OVERTONES
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Fritz Reiner, conductor, gave
a concert at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Fairmount, Philadelphia,
on Sunday evening, December 20th. Eudice Shapiro, graduate violinist
under Mr. Efrem Zimbalist, and Leonard Rose, student of violoncello
with Mr. Felix Salmond, were soloists with the Orchestra.
The Orchestra played from the center landing of the huge stairway
in the Grand Court of the Museum, with the audience assembled on
the main floor below and the balcony looping the vast hall.
The program :
Toccata and Fugue in D minor Bach-Leonardi
Concerto for Violin, Violoncello
and Orchestra, in A minor
Opus 102 Johannes Brahms
Eudice Shapiro Leonard Rose
Facade William Turner Walton
Overture to "Der Freischiitz" Carl Maria von Weber
Fritz Reiner, Conductor
The foregoing concerts have all been curricular activities; that is,
these concerts were scheduled by The Curtis Institute as part of the
students' courses. Students also have engaged in other "outside"
professional activities.
Ezra Rachlin, pianist, pupil of Mr. David Saperton, was guest
artist with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, in Carnegie Hall,
Pittsburgh, on November 24th.
Phyllis Moss, pianist, pupil of Madame Isabelle Vengerova, ap-
peared with the Civic Symphony Orchestra at Irvine Auditorium of
the University of Pennsylvania on October 18th. She also was soloist
with the Bamberger Symphony Orchestra in Newark, New Jersey,
on November 26th.
Marjorie Call and Reinhardt Elster, harpists, and Leonard Rose,
'cellist, gave programs at the home of Miss Esther Hare, in Radnor,
Pennsylvania, on October 28th, and at the home of Miss Elizabeth
Chew, in Germantown, Philadelphia, on November 10th,
{ 40 >
OVERTONES
Fritz Krueger, tenor, Oscar Eiermann, accompanist, and Zadel
Skolofsky, pianist, gave a musicale at the home of Mrs. Charles G.
Berwind, in Paoli, Pennsylvania, on October 28th. Mr. Krueger, and
Barbara Thorne, with Mr. Eiermann as accompanist, gave a joint
vocal recital at the Hotel Sylvania, Philadelphia, on December 9th.
Miss Thorne and Leonard Rose gave a joint recital, accompanied
by Mr. Eiermann, at the home of Mr. S. W. Taylor, in Chestnut Hill,
Philadelphia, on November 12th.
Fritz Krueger appeared in Painesville, Ohio, on December 11th,
for the Woman's Club.
Charlotte Ridley, soprano, and Ralph Schaeffer, violinist, gave a
joint recital at the home of Mrs. Charles Sinnickson, Rosemont, Penn-
sylvania, on November 19th. Their accompanist was Julian Goodstein.
Sol Kaplan, pianist, and Frederick Vogelgesang, violinist, played
at the home of Mrs. Henry Place, Wayne, Pennsylvania, on November
24th. Mr. Kaplan and Miss Thorne appeared with Rafael Druian,
violinist, at the Kenilworth Apartments, Germantown, Philadelphia,
on December 8th.
Eudice Shapiro, violinist (graduate), Leonard Rose, 'cellist, and
Richard Goodman, pianist, presented a program at the home of Mrs.
Henry Farnum in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, on December 2nd.
Sidney Finkelstein, pianist, gave a program at the home of Mrs.
J. R. McAllister, in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, on December 10th.
Sol Kaplan, pianist, played a program at the home of Mrs. Charles
G. Berwind, in Paoli, Pennsylvania, on December 27th.
Annette Elkanova, pianist, pupil of Madame Isabelle Vengerova,
and Rafael Druian, violinist, pupil of Madame Lea Luboshutz, gave
a joint recital at the Y. M. and Y. W. H. A., Philadelphia, on Novem-
ber 12th, this being one of the Youth Recital Series.
Five students assisted in the performance of Felix Mendelssohn-
Bartholody's oratorio Elijah on Sunday afternoons in October by Dr.
Alexander McCurdy and his chorus choir at the Second Presbyterian
Church, Philadelphia. The students were Lester Englander, baritone,
and William Home, tenor, pupils of Mr. Emilio de Gogorza, who sang
the solo parts of Elijah and Obadiah; Elsie MacFarlane, contralto,
pupil of Miss Harriet van Emden, who sang the parts of the Angel
{41>
OVERTONES
and Jezehel; Barbara Thorne, soprano, also a pupil of Miss van Emden,
who sang the part of the Widow; and Walter Baker, pupil of Dr.
McCurdy and assistant organist at the church, who was at the organ.
Miss Thorne, Miss MacFarlane, and Mr. Home were soloists at
the Second Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Baker was at the organ,
for a performance of Mozart's Kequiem with the choir and an orchestra
drawn from the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, on Sunday afternoon,
November 1st, Dr. McCurdy conducting.
Miss Thorne, Miss MacFarlane, and Fritz Krueger, tenor, pupil
of Mr. de Gogorza, were soloists in Cesar Franck's Mass in A given
at the Second Presbyterian Church on Sunday afternoon, November
15th, with a harp ensemble, and strings from the Curtis Symphony
Orchestra. Three of the harpists were Curtis Institute folk: Marjorie
Tyre, graduate and member of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Flora Bruce
Greenwood, graduate, and Reinhardt Elster, pupil of Dr. Carlos^alzedo.
Walter Baker was at the organ, and Dr. McCurdy conducted.
Miss Thorne and Miss MacFarlane were soloists again at the Second
Presbyterian Church on Sunday afternoon, December 13th, in a per-
formance of Bach's Magnificat, with the chorus choir. Dr. McCurdy
conducting. For this performance. Dr. McCurdy put two people at
the organ: that is, one organist, Claribel Gegenheimer, played upon
the organ proper, and a second organist, Richard Purvis, played upon
an "offset" console, being in fact a fifth manual. A harpsichord piano
was used also, this part being played by Walter Baker. Miss Gegen-
heimer and Mr. Purvis are students under Dr. McCurdy at The Curtis
Institute.
Charlotte Ridley, soprano, graduate, Miss MacFarlane, Miss
Thorne, and Mr. Englander were soloists in Walter Baker's performance
of Elijah at the First Baptist Church, Philadelphia, given in two parts
on November 22nd and 29th.
And now we come to the activities of organists.
The Organ Department
Every student of The Curtis Institute's organ department has a
position; that is, an organ and a choir of his own. They are, all of
them, active in their profession, even while studying.
{41}
ALEXANDER McCURDY. Mus. D.
instructor of Organ at The Curtis Institute
OVERTONES
Walter Baker already has acquired a reputation in Philadelphia.
At the First Baptist Church he has mapped out for this season a pro-
gram of oratorio presentations on twelve Sunday evenings, of Men-
delssohn's Hymn of Praise and Elijah, Saint-Saens's "Christmas"
Oratorio, Brahms's Kequiem, Franck's M.issaSolemnis, Rossini's Stahat
Mater, Dubois's "The Seven Last Words of Christ," Bach's "Refor-
mation" cantata, Ein Feste Burg, and a complete performance, without
cuts, of Handel's The Messiah. He also is planning to give three organ
recitals at his church in February. Besides his work at his own church,
Mr. Baker assists Dr. McCurdy in the Sunday afternoon services at
the Second Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. Mr. Baker also has
been engaged to play the organ for the Delaware County Bach Society's
performances of The Messiah at St. James's Church, Philadelphia, and
in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Richard Purvis is organist and choirmaster of the Tioga Methodist
Church, Philadelphia. Claribel Gegenheimer is organist and choir
director at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Collingswood, New Jersey.
Henry Beard is organist and choirmaster at the Second Baptist Church,
Germantown, Philadelphia. Nancy Poore is organist and choir director
at the Northminster Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, where part
of her duties consists of playing a set of electrical chimes. And, the
youngest student of the department, Elmer Cooke, who is but seven-
teen, has the organ and choir of St. Stephen's Protestant Episcopal
Church, in North Philadelphia. All of these students are in complete
charge of music at their respective churches.
Another student, Richard Fairchild, is organist at the Hill School,
Pottstown, Pennsylvania. There he plays the organ for chapel services
and conducts the choir and the glee club and also a band.
We have called the roll of the organ department. Each student has
answered to his name with a statement of his job!
{44>
C^aCLal <=:^ctiVUL
ivUie^
A tea was given on Sunday afternoon, October 11th, at The Curtis
Institute, that new students might meet the President, the Director,
and members of the faculty and staff.
The Christmas Party
The annual Christmas party was given on the evening of Monday,
December 21st. The Common Room was beautifully decorated, as
always, for the occasion, and in one corner stood a glowing Christmas
tree. Around the tree, as is their custom, a group of students sang
Christmas carols.
There was dancing to a jazz orchestra, and on this occasion the
students chose to appear as characters of the circus, their gay costumes
making a colorful scene.
Motion pictures showing everybody of The Curtis Institute at his
customary tasks, from the President down, greatly interested all.
Photography by students.
Mrs. Bok, Dr. Hofmann, and members of the faculty were present,
besides students and members of the staff.
And a very special guest was Santa Claus, delighting all, in the
person of Anton Hofmann, eleven-year-old son of our Director, home
from his own school for the holidays.
{45 >
SHOWING THAT ARTISTS DO NOT LIVE BY MUSIC ALONE
A comer in the cafeteria of The Curtis Institute,
where faculty, staff, and students mingle fraternally
day by day
J-ke J Vcw u<^eca'cJiLna .=^/jepa'ctn^ettt
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursel's as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!
Robert Burns
IF we were to paraphrase the second line of this famous verse of Burns ' s
poem so that it read "To hear oursel's as ithers hear us," we should
have a concise but beautiful expression of the fundamental idea that
doubtless was back of the installation of recording equipment at the
beginning of our 1936-37 school year.
* Recording is a new departure for The Curtis Institute. It offers
another and excellent method of study, which our Director, Dr. Josef
Hofmann, has made available to the students.
Since the inception of radio and sound films, there have been many
developments in the simplification and standardization of recording
on discs. Our equipment is used principally for recording the weekly
broadcasts and making records of the students' singing and playing.
The recording department occupies two rooms on an upper floor of
the building known familiarly to us as "17x0." The equipment was
installed under the supervision of Dr. Gabriel M. Giannini, de-
signer of dampers for the Riverside Carillon, New York, who has
been of great service to us in technical radio and phonograph matters.
The set-up is very complete, and consists of cutting device, turntables
for recording and playing records, a radio, amplification units, loud-
speakers, and a microphone, the last for recording in the studio adjoin-
ing the control room. There is also a direct cable to Casimir Hall in
< 47 >
OVERTONES
order that the weekly broadcasts may be recorded directly, without
radio interference.
With this equipment, it is possible to make records of the students'
work from the studio, to record the broadcasts either directly from
Casimir Hall or from the radio, and to make copies of records. The
discs are capable of being played immediately, requiring no hardening
or baking. By using an oversize disc when recording, and having this
electroplated, it is possible to make any number of pressings from the
master disc. On an electric phonograph with a featherweight ' 'pickup' '
the discs may be played up to fifty times without appreciable loss of
quality.
The turntables are adapted to play standard records of any make,
enabling the students to take advantage of the large library of these
owned by the school, comparing the renditions of famous works by
master artists.
For the forty-five minutes of the weekly broadcast, while the pro-
gram is on the air, the students are keyed up to a point where they
must give their best. There may be no stopping, as in practice, to do
over again a faulty phrase or passage, for they must keep on without
pause, and also without the psychological effect of audience reaction,
until the program is completed. Here are conditions they will face
thruout their careers of concert and radio performance. A recording of
their work during these critical moments of our broadcasts is a positive
revelation to the students. Even disillusionment is constructive.
To a lesser degree their work in the recording studio has the same
benefits. Here they may try out their future programs and accustom
themselves, in private, to radio station technique in the use of the
microphone, learning to project themselves thru the medium of this
somewhat recalcitrant instrument.
Altho we have still a few technical difficulties to be ironed out,
such as the matter of acoustics in the recording studio, the equipment
already is enabling students to be their own worst critics. It is hoped
that the recording of their performances will, to paraphrase Burns
again, "... frae monie a blunder free them, An' foolish notion."
GORDON MAPES
{ 48 }
OVERTONES
MAY 1937
THE
CURTIS INSTITUTE
OF MUSIC
OVERTONES
PUBLISHED BY
THE CURTIS INSTITUTE of MUSIC
RITTENHOUSE SQUARE
PHILADELPHIA • PENNSYLVANIA
Vol. VII— No. II May 1937
OVERTONES
ELSIE HUTT, Editor
Contents
ARTICLES
PAGE
Josef Hofmann (poem) W. J. Henderson 55
Gian Carlo Menotti and "Amelia" 57
Mrs. Bok Honored 63
The Curtis Institute Pays Tribute to Samuel Barber 65
The Romance of 'Cello 72 Louis Bailly, Mus.D. 67
Concerning the Faculty 69
In Cleveland 72
We Note That (News of Graduates) 76
Some Additions to the Organ in Casimir Hall Alexander McCurdy, Mus.D. 78
Opera Premieres 81
Special Events 83
Commencement 84
Student Activities 85
Library Notes 95
ILLUSTRATIONS
Josef Hofmann, Mus.D 52
Josef Hofmann Makes American Debut 54
"Amelia" 56
Gian Carlo Menotti 59
Stage Setting for "Amelia" 62
Samuel Barber 64
"Alumnae" in Cleveland 72
Boris Goldovsky 73
Rose Bampton 74
Shura Cherkassky 74
Nadia Reisenberg 75
Joseph Levine 75
Genia Robinor 75
Fritz Reiner and Gian Carlo Menotti 82
Oskar Shumsky 92
Permission is granted to reproduce parts of this magazine provided due acknowledgment is made to Ovirtmii. Copyright 1937 by The Curtis
Institute of Music. Printed in the United States of America.
{51>
I88J
FIFTY YEARS A CONCERT PIANIST
IN THE UNITED STATES
1931
JOSEF HOFMANN, Mus.D,
{51}
O/it ^^=UJLtecta'c
On November 28, 1937, Dr. Josef Hofmann will
mark the fiftieth anniversary of his first appearance
in America with a concert at the Metropolitan Opera
House, New York City, where he made his debut
in 1887. His Golden Jubilee tour in the United States
and Canada will carry him from coast to coast.
Dr. Hofmann also will celebrate his Golden
Jubilee in Europe with recitals in October in Queens
Hall, London, and other cities, all approximately
fifty years after his first appearances.
{53>
JOSEF UOFMANN MAKES AMERICAN DEBUT
at the Metropolitan Opera House
"The occasion proved something to be remembered and talked over for the rest
of one's life." New York Herald, November 30, 1887.
{ 54 >
OVERTONES
JOSEF HOFMANN
"With gravest lips and innocent sweet eyes.
And smile made pure by deep emotions cast.
With childlike wisdom, more than ivorldly wise.
Thou br ingest messages from out the past.
* ' The mighty spirits of the sons of song.
To thee reveal the tones they could not write.
When fancies came tn ovenvhelming throng;
Thou km we St then, boy; thine is the light.
"Two little hands, a child' s imperfect hands.
Make new for us the dead dreams once again;
From dusk to dawn, through all the listening lands.
Those little hands are on the hearts of men.^'
W. J. HENDERSON
The New York Times, Sunday, December 4, 1887 (editorial page)
{55>
An Italian conception of "Amelia"
by the young painter DARIO CECCHI
{ 56 >
\^Lan L^atia yl/Lenctti and <=::A-ntciLa
GiAN Carlo Menotti was born in Cadigliano, Italy. He is the sixth
of a musical family of ten children, and composed his first opera
at the age of eleven. He came to the United States in 1928, carrying a
letter of introduction from Mrs. Arturo Toscanini, and soon afterwards
became a student of composition with Mr. Rosario Scalero at The
Curtis Institute of Music. In 1931 Mr. Menotti's Variations on a theme
of Schumann won for him the Carl F. Lauber prize for original musical
composition. He finished his studies at The Curtis Institute in 1933
and returned to Italy.
Late in October of that year Mr. Menotti went with Samuel Barber
to Vienna. One of the choicest memories of anyone at The Curtis
Institute during the student days of Gian Carlo Menotti and Samuel
Barber surely will be the friendship that developed between these two
— but that is another story. And so is their winter in Vienna, except
that "Amelia's" first nebulous beginnings crystallized there, and also
that Mr. Menotti's Pastorale and Dance, for string orchestra and piano,
had its premiere under the baton of — ^Samuel Barber! The Pastorale
is Mr. Menotti's first composition in larger form. It has since been
performed by a chamber orchestra and pianist conducted by Dr. Louis
Bailly, at The Curtis Institute, and by the Philadelphia Simfonietta,
Mr. Fabien Sevitzky conducting, playing in Philadelphia, with the
composer at the piano.
"Amelia" became a very real, very vivid person to her creator. The
geographical background of her evolution shifted over Vienna, West
Chester and the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, the rocky coast
of the Penobscot in Maine, New York City, the shores of Lugano, and
St. Wolfgang in Austria, where in the autumn of 1936 the opera was
finished. "I really hate", said Mr. Menotti then, "to put the word
'End' to the score — it is just like saying good-bye to a dear old friend. ' '
^Forming and conducting a chamber orchestra that met once a week in his atelier was one of the winter's
activities of Mr. Barber.
<57>
OVERTONES
Mr. Menotti is responsible for the libretto as well as the music of
the opera. The rhymed text is in Italian. The action is laid in Milan
in the year 1900, and the scene is "Amelia's" boudoir. The sparkling
little plot concerns the frantic preparations and determination of a
sprightly and coquettish young Milanese lady, beset by hindrances on
all sides, to go to a ball. "Amelia" nimbly hurdles one obstacle after
another — a jealous husband threatening a shooting affray; a lover pro-
posing an elopement; the dead calm of a philosophic discussion between
husband and lover concerning "what is right and what is wrong";
the police investigating her own delicate shrieks for help after knock-
ing her husband unconscious with a vase — and turns a seeming i?^passe,
in which the ball appears farther off than ever, with her husband
being hustled to a hospital and her lover to jail, into triumph, by
going to the ball with the chief of police.
We shall allow others to comment on the quality of "Amelia al
Ballo".
"Mr. Menotfi was his own librettist, and if the Italian script is anything as
good as the English translation of George Mead he is destined to be another Boito.
. . . The music ... is light, witty, extraordinarily skillful and, when required,
passionate and melodious. Though Mr. Menotti shows that he knows his Wolf-
Ferrari and his Verdi of 'Falstaff', the traces of his origins are very few. This is
humorous music, contrived with amazing ingenuity by a virile, imaginative and
sensitive artist. It mocks at modernistic music and saves its acidulous harmonies for
moments that demand their use. In Mr. Menotti I believe we have at last a composer
who utilizes the resources of music, both ancient and modern, for the sole purpose
of illuminating action and expressing character. The lyric stage needs Mr. Menotti
very much." Samuel Chotzinoff, in New York Post, April 12, 1937.
Not content with his first observations, Mr. Chotzinoff wrote again
in the New York Post of April 17th :
"Almost with the first orchestral bars of 'Amelia al Ballo' one knew that one
was in the presence of a genuine, new musical talent. The orchestra discoursed vital
matters, vital, that is, because it shut out everything else, though the matters in
themselves were thin as air. That, of course, is the one true way to deal with comedy,
light or high, as it is the only true way of dealing with tragedy. Young Mr. Menotti
was passionate about his absurd, witty, confused, farcical story, indeed about every
word of it. He was writing his music from the inside looking out, and not the other
way around, which is the common practice of pretentious and would-be artists. And,
because he was doing that and was — which is equally important — a young, skilled
and highly gifted musician, his score was like a tube of quicksilver as it raced up
{ 58 >
GIAN CARLO MENOTTI
creator of "Amelia al Ballo"
{ 59 >
OVE RT O N E S
and down, illuminating each word, each thought, and realized, tonally, hidden
implications of irony, sophistry and all those vague antennae of human speech and
gesture. Nor did this sparkling, naughty and capricious music exist in any indeter-
minate period of time. It was music of the very present, though the scene was laid
in the gay nineties in Milan, and the harmonies were not traceable to the Messrs.
Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Milhaud. All the harmonies were simple or complicated
at the inexorable behest of the idea or emotion of the moment. But they were always
solid and rang true. Mr. Menotti can write cacophony as ably as the next man, and
he does so pointedly, at a moment of his story, proving that the easy way is the
modernist. Add to this musical and orchestral virtuosity a lyric vein, broad and deep
and original, and you get the measure of the creative artist that Mr. Menotti is at
the ripe age of twenty-five."
"The libretto, written by the composer, showed humor and a knowledge of the
construction of operatic comedy, while the music evinced a talent for opera buffa
and a good understanding of the theatre. Solos for the lover and the husband and a
trio for the three were well written and evoked deserved applause. The orchestration
was all discreet and effective. It is very probable that Mr. Menotti will be heard
from again." W. J. Henderson, in New York Sun, April 12, 1937.
And Mr. Henderson also had more to say five days later:
"Perhaps those who keep the doings of the operatic world in mind recognized
in Mr. Menotti's overture certain stylistic resemblances to the music of Wolf-Ferrari.
The composer of 'The Secret of Suzanne' is by no means a bad model for a writer of
opera buffa. But let it be said without reservation that Mr. Menotti's overture was
related to Wolf-Ferrari only in the general attributes of style. What the young com-
poser had to say was entirely his own. He had his own thematic materials and his
own manner of developing them. The opera itself showed above all other things a
keen sense of the theatre. It had none of the baitings and stumblings of the musician
who wishes to write for the stage, but does not know just how to go about it. This
young man evidently has theatre in his blood. He has the natural instinct of the
opera composer. His music never lagged for a moment. It bubbled and sparkled its
way through to the end and its spirit was continually infectious. ... It is almost
a certainty that we shall hear again from Mr. Menotti. Whether he will blossom
out into a pretentious writer of grand operas is unpredictable. This music lover is
inclined to hope that he will not. We need new operas, to be sure, but not necessarily
tragic ones. In these cloudy days a youthful spirit ready to bestow upon the world
gifts of gayety, to compose comedy operas full of vivacity and lively music, is a
blessing with which we should not wish to part." New York Sun, April 17, 1937-
"The music and the book, both in a vein of amusing satire, are both remarkably
deft and mature work for a young man of twenty-five. The work is the most successful
attempt to reproduce the vein of classic Italian opera buffa in a modern treatment
that has been set forth here in a long time. In reproducing the general style of this
{ 60 >
OVERTONES
genre of opera and doing so with notable lightness and sureness of touch the composer
has not provided an imitation of Rossini or some earlier specialist in this form but
has written a score distinctly his own. It wQuld be possible to name a few influences,
but these have been merged in an individual and exceptionally effective style, suggest-
ing the development of a technique and craftsmanship in writing for the lyric stage
which should carry the composer far." F.D.P., New York Herald Tribune, April 12,
1937.
"His music has the style and glitter of the operatic composers of his native land.
The turn of a phrase here and there bears the stamp of distinguished Italian forebears,
but the essential vitality, ingenuity and laughter are the composer's own. Mr. Menotti
knows how to toss off a shapely tune. He knows how to whip up tumultuous cli-
maxes. He knows how to write for voice." H. Howard Taubman, in New York
Times, April 12, 1937.
'Amelia Goes to the Ball* made an overwhelming success, and established
Menotti as an operatic talent already close to maturity, and of truly significant
promise. This firstling work, saturated with melody, and highly sophisticated as
to libretto, took the listeners completely by surprise — especially the present chroni-
cler, who had not thought that there is a youthful composer today with sense and
ability enough to side-step tragedy and conceive and create an opera bujfa of tradi-
tional style but enriched with the resources of modern orchestration. Menotti's
libretto is astonishingly good. . . . Menotti's music is in keeping with the comical
tale, the score being light, and lyrical by turns, cleverly characterized and orches-
trated with delicacy and deftness. Eminently singable and tuneful airs abound, and
while some of them suggest Wolf-Ferrari and the early Puccini, for the most part
they have original contour and charm. There is an overture of compelling vivacity
and tunefulness, and a delightful trio stands out as a piece of unusually atmospheric
writing." Leonard Liebling, in Musical Courier, April 10, 1937.
"... a young composer who may yet become the white hope of opera . . . The
Menotti work brought the audience to its feet, cheering . . . Stemming from Rossini,
down to Verdi (of 'Falstaff') and Wolf-Ferrari, his music has the added sophistication
and brilliance of these pulsating times. When a deeper note is sounded it is genuine,
passionate, and melodic. The orchestration is masterly in its vivid realization of the
wit and farcical humor of the tale. In fact, 'Amelia al Ballo' is the first new opera
in many years that has the genuine creative spark." Marcia Davenport, in Stage,
May 1937.
These among a veritable flood of press criticisms. In addition to
them, Mr. Menotti received many letters from musical acquaintances,
some of whose names are to be conjured with, expressing highest
praise.
{ 61 >
OVERTONES
And now, having finished "Amelia" and seen it performed, Mr.
Menotti has already begun his next opera. This will be a lyric sketch
of that American institution, the woman's club. As the young com-
poser calls his next opera tentatively "The Last Superman", doubtless
some unfortunate male also is involved. The time and place will be
the present and New York City. Following his procedure in "Amelia",
Mr. Menotti is writing both the book and the music.
He also has two other jobs on hand, a ballet score commissioned by
Miss Catherine Littlefield, and an opera especially for radio, com-
missioned by NBC. Our heartiest congratulations and eagerest antici-
pations to Gian Carlo Menotti!
WMm
'1
Donald Oens/ager's sketch for the setting of "Amelia al Ballo"
{ 62 >
At its annual dinner May 11th at the Waldorf-
Astoria Hotel in New York City, the National Insti-
tute of Social Sciences will confer the Institute's
Gold Medal upon the founder and President of The
Curtis Institute of Music, Mrs. Mary Bok, "in recog-
nition of the distinguished service she has rendered
in behalf of the musical life of America." The
Honorable George Wharton Pepper of Philadelphia
will make the presentation.
{ 63 >
SAMUEL BARBER
will be the first Amertciin composer ever to he represented in the Snlzhur^ Fcsliviils
{ 64 >
AN event without precedent was staged by The Curtis Institute in
Casimir Hall on the evening of Sunday, March 7th. This was a
concert devoted to works of a graduate, Samuel Barber, the 'first all-
Barber program to be given in a concert hall. Mr. Barber is the only
graduate thus far to be so honored.
The compositions performed were Serenade (for string quartet),
composed in 1929, played by the Curtis String Quartet; Sonata for
Violoncello and Piano, Opus 6, composed in 1932, played by Mr. Felix
Salmond and Ralph Berkowitz ; two movements of a new String Quartet
in B minor, hnished in the autumn of 1936, played by the Curtis String
Quartet; the setting for voice and string quartet of Matthew Arnold's
"Dover Beach", composed in 1931, sung and played by Miss Rose
Bampton and the Curtis String Quartet; and the songs "Dance", "The
Daisies", and "Bessie Bobtail" (words by James Stephens), the first
two composed in 1927, sung by Miss Bampton with Mrs. John Braun
at the piano, the third composed in 1934, sung by Mr. Benjamin de
Loache, also with Mrs. Braun at the piano; "With Rue My Heart is
Laden" (words by A. E. Housman) composed in 1928, and "Beggar's
Song" (words by W. H. Davies) composed in 1936, sung by Mr. de
Loache accompanied by Mrs. Braun; "Rain has Fallen" and "Sleep
Now", composed in 1935, and "I hear an Army", composed in 1936
(words of all three by James Joyce), sung by Miss Bampton with the
composer at the piano. Since Mr. Barber was graduated in 1933, it will
be seen that student days were represented as well as his most recent
period.
That Miss Bampton, Mr. de Loache, the Quartet, and Mr. Barber
performed in Casimir Hall for the first time since being graduated con-
stituted additional ' 'hrsts" , and a further unusual feature of the concert
'The Music Guild broadcast of February 4,1935, over the NBC System was to the best of our knowledge
the first all-Barber program to be given anywhere. Another all-Barber radio concert was that of May 9, 1935,
when the Prix de Rome winners of that year were announced. Overtones, Vol. VI, pp. 22-23.
{ 65 }•
OVERTONES
was the participation of Mrs. Braun who, having retired from public
life, appears in concert as a pianist but rarely, and whose appearance
on this occasion was an especial tribute to a graduate of a school of
whose Board of Directors she is a member. But not one but all of these
Curtis folk rendered homage to their former associate in the warmest
and most whole-hearted manner, and their participation in the concert
was readily and cordially given.
The President of The Curtis Institute, Mrs. Mary Bok, paid verbal
tribute to Mr. Barber from the stage before the concert began. At the
conclusion of the program the composer modestly expressed his appre-
ciation and thanked those who had taken part.
Following the concert a reception for Mr. Barber was given in the
Common Room.
Some Performances of Mr. Barber' s Works
Symphony in One Movement: BERNARDINO MOLINARI— AUGUSTEO ORCHES-
TRA, Rome, December 13, 1936 (world premiere)
ARTUR RODZINSKI — CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA, Cleveland, January 21
(American premiere)— 23, 1937; NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC, New York,
March 24-25, April 3-4, 1937; LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, London,
June 24, 1937; VIENNA PHILHARMONIC, Salzburg Festival, July 25, 1937
(first American work to be played at these Festivals)
Music for a Scene from Shelley: WERNER J ANSSEN— LONDON SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA, London, February 6, 1937 (world premiere by New York
Philharmonic, New York, March 24, 1935)
EUGENE ORMANDY— PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA, Philadelphia, March
12-13-16, 1937
String Quartet in B minor— PRO ARTE QUARTET, Rome, December 14, 1936
(world premiere)
GORDON STRING QUARTET, Washington, for the Friends of Music in the
Library of Congress, April 20, 1937 (American premiere)
Mr. Barber has been commissioned by Mr. Eugene Ormandy to
compose a symphonic work for performance in 1938 by the Philadel-
phia Orchestra.
The New York Philharmonic-Symphony Society has asked Mr.
Barber to compose a symphonic work for performance in 1938 under
the direction of Mr. John Barbirolli.
{66>
by LOUIS BAILLY, MUS.D.
Curator of Instruments, The Curtis Institute of Music
LAST Winter I had the pleasure of welcoming a rather special arrival
J at The Curtis Institute. The newcomer was a Domenico Montagnana
violoncello, and receiving her at last into our family of string instru-
ments was both a satisfaction and a thrill.
This 'cello, I may explain, has been known to me by reputation for
a long time. In the summer of 1929 rumors of its being in Shipley, a
town near Bradford, Yorkshire, reached me. I was then in London and
preparing to go on an instrument hunt. Of course I had to see this 'cello.
By starting very early in the morning it was possible to arrive in
Shipley by noon. I saw the 'cello and she was twice as beautiful as I had
expected her to be! I had to have her for our Curtis Institute collection.
But acquiring the 'cello was not so simple. The owner, an elderly
German wool manufacturer, fully appreciated and liked to play upon
his Montagnana — when his rheumatism permitted. He did not want to
part with his Liebling. My siege continued for five hours, quite exhaust-
ing all the diplomatic devices and tactics in my repertoire, and all of no
avail. I was obliged to return to London and eventually to Philadelphia
with only a promise, extracted at length from the old gentleman, that
The Curtis Institute should ha ve first chance to purchase, for consolation .
The famous house of Hill in London probably is acquainted with
more string instruments than is any other establishment in the world.
The elderly German wool manufacturer died and Hill had the job of
putting thru the transaction passing the Montagnana from the estate
to The Curtis Institute. The Montagnana was formally acquired in
November 1936 and arrived at The Curtis Institute a month later. A
romantic story concerning her was yet to be revealed.
Mr. Alfred Hill, who it turned out had known our Montagnana
since the 'Eighties, wrote me a letter telling that one day, presumably
of the year 1901, he had come across a 'cello whose head and body
< 67)
OVERTONES
were the work of two different makers. He bought the 'cello and suc-
ceeded in establishing then and there that the head was the original
head of the Montagnana 'cello now ours, which he knew had been
sold "somewhere in Germany' ' . This Montagnana head he immediately
removed and filed away "for future reference", being able at the same
time, thru extraordinary circumstance, to restore the original head of
the instrument he had just bought. So, when the Montagnana, thirty-
five years later, went thru his hands, he restored with great satisfaction
her original head also! And we (in my visit I had noticed the head was
not original) had the thrill of receiving more than we had expected.
I do not know how common such experiences of reuniting severed
heads and bodies may be, even in the career of such a house as Hill, but
here are two such cases wound up in the story of our Montagnana
'cello.
After cataloging the newcomer, I had the further pleasure of lend-
ing the Montagnana, on behalf of The Curtis Institute, to the 'cello
of the Curtis String Quartet, Mr. Orlando Cole. And then still another
reunion occurred ! After hearing the Quartet play for the first time with
the Montagnana, my colleague at The Curtis Institute, Mr. Felix
Salmond, who subsequently twice this season appeared as guest artist
with the Curtis String Quartet, examined the 'cello with pleasure and
exclaimed that now his Goffriller would be brought together again
with a former associate, Goffriller and Montagnana both having been
once in the possession of the delightful little old German wool man-
ufacturer of Shipley !
Our 'cello was made by Domenico Montagnana of Venice and bears
a label dated 1729. Montagnana was a pupil of Stradivarius, and some
authorities claim also of Niccolo Amati. The back of our 'cello, in two
pieces, is of wood marked by a broad, wavy curl descending from the
joint, that of the sides being similar, the head plainer; the table is of
pine of vigorous growth and broad, open grain; the varnish of an
orange-brown color.
{ 68 >
y^^ancctnina tke ^^acaULi
SuMER is icumen in" — and the faculty turn to Europe. Mr. Fritz
Reiner, having made one European tour January to March, goes to
London in May for the German section of Co vent Garden opera.
Madame "Lea Luboshutz, touring Europe since March, and Mr. Felix
Salmond, also turn to London for concerts during the post-Coronation
season.
A member of the faculty who has returned to concert activity this
season is Dr. Louis Bailly. He toured Europe professionally in February
and March and made two appearances in New York City in March
and April.
Dr. Alexander McCurdy, organist, toured the south and southwest,
going as far as the Pacific coast, in April. He is a graduate as well as a
faculty member.
This thirteenth season of The Curtis Institute has incffcded a bril-
liant series of concerts in Casimir Hall by members of the faculty and
with guest collaborators, Mr. Felix Salmond and Madame Lea Lubo-
shutz giving recitals and Barrere-Salzedo-Britt a concert, the last thru
the courtesy of Mr. Carlos S^lzedo, before the Christmas holidays.
They Appear in Casimir Hall
The first recital in Casimir Hall following the Christmas vacation
was a recital by Mr. Efrem Zimbalist, on Thursday evening, 'January
7th. Opening his program with Corelli's "La Folia" in the Kreisler
arrangement, Mr. Zimbalist proceeded to a performance of his own
Sonata in G minor (composed in 1927). Eugene Ysaye's Sonata in D
minor, for violin alone, followed, with Max Bruch's "Scotch Fantasy"
completing the second group. Returning to the platform, Mr. Zim-
balist played "California" (Humoresque; on a tune by Paladilhe) by
{ 69 >
OVERTONES
Arthur Loesser, Schubert's "Hark! Hark! the Lark" as arranged by
Albert Spalding for violin and piano, the "Persian Song" of Glinka
transcribed by Mr. Zimbalist for violin and piano, and Paganini's
famous "Witches' Dance" in the Kreisler arrangement. Mr. Harry
Kaufman of the faculty was the pianist-accompanist for the program.
This was the third of the faculty recital series.
Miss Genia Robinor and Dr. Louis Bailly presented a piano and
viola sonata recital in Casimir Hall on Wednesday evening, January
13th, a prelude to the series of sonata recitals given by them in Europe,
and also in New York City, in February and March. Miss Robinor is a
graduate of The Curtis Institute in chamber music, having studied
with Dr. Bailly, and now a member of the faculty of The Settlement
Music School, Philadelphia. On this occasion she appeared as guest
pianist. The sonatas which Miss Robinor and Dr. Bailly performed
in Casimir Hall were those of Georg Friedrich Handel, in G minor,
Sergei V. Rachmaninow, also in G minor (Op. 19), and the two
Johannes Brahms sonatas comprising Op. 120. The Handel originally
in the form of a Concerto Grosso, the Rachmaninow having been writ-
ten for 'cello and piano, and both the Brahms sonatas for clarinet and
piano, these four sonatas, and others used by Miss Robinor and Dr.
Bailly in their programs, have been transcribed by Dr. Bailly for viola
and piano.
On Tuesday evening, January 19th, a junior member of the faculty,
Miss Jeanne Behrend, pianist, played the program which she repeated
later in her Carnegie Hall recital. A feature of the program was a
sonata of Miss Behrend's own composition. She played first the Con-
certo Grosso, in D minor, of Antonio Vivaldi, as transcribed for piano
by Alexander Kelberine. Mozart's Variations on an aria by Sarti
"Come un' agnello" followed, after which Miss Behrend played two
of Mr. Kelberine's Bach transcriptions: the choral prelude "Aus der
Tiefe rufe ich" and the Prelude in E major from the Third Suite for
Violin Solo. Miss Behrend's Sonata (Op. 7), composed in 1936, was
next; the four movements are designated "Con energia ed intensita",
"Lento piacevole", "Scherzo alia marcia", and "Passacaglia". The
three remaining numbers of the program were Ravel's "Le Tombeau
de Couperin", Nicholai Medtner's Marche Funebre, and Professor Leo-
{ 70 }
OVERTONES
pold Godowsky's Waltz Paraphrase on Johann Strauss's "Die Fleder-
maus". Miss Behrend is a teacher of Piano, Grade B, at The Curtis
Institute. She is a graduate of the Institute in both piano and composi-
tion, having studied with Dr. Josef Hofmann and Mr. Rosario Scalero.
Dr. Josef Hofmann appeared in Casimir Hall on the evening of
Thursday, April 8th. For the first number of the program Dr. Hofmann
was joined on the stage by the Curtis String Quartet. This was the
Quintet in F minor. Op. 34, by Johannes Brahms, which Dr. Hofmann
and the Quartet had played in a concert by the Quartet at Dr. and Mrs.
Hofmann 's home in Merion, Pennsylvania, April 5th (one of the
Quartet's series of concerts in and around Philadelphia) and were again
to play in a Beethoven Association concert in Town Hall, New York
City, April 12th. The rest of the program consisted of the Twenty-four
Preludes by Frederic Chopin, played by Dr. Hofmann.
Mr. David Saperton has become a composer. Five of his pieces, all
for piano, have been published: "Zephyr" (Presser); "Evening in the
Desert", "By the Lagoon", "Cubanola", and "Boite a Musique"
(Schirmer). "By the Lagoon" is available also in an arrangement for
violin and piano (Schirmer).
A new member of the faculty is Miss Estelle Liebling. Miss Liebling
began teaching at The Curtis Institute in January, immediately follow-
ing the Christmas holidays, in the vocal department.
<71>
CURTIS "alumnae," now in Cleveland, foregather in Severance Hall to greet their former Director. The occasion was Dr.
Josef H of mann's solo appearance with the Cleveland Orchestra December 17-19, 1936. Nine graduates are members of the
Orchestra.
d^tt y^^LcveianJi
As Will Be Seen from the accompanying picture, a sizable Curtis
. Institute colony exists in Cleveland, Ohio, which includes the con-
ductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, Dr. Artur Rodzinski, and the direc-
tor of The Cleveland Music School Settlement, Miss Emily McCallip.
Dr. Rodzinski was The Curtis Institute's head of Orchestra and Opera
and conductor of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra for two years (1927-
29) and Miss McCallip Curtis Institute Student Counselor for eight
(1924-32).
One graduate of The Curtis Institute occupies a rather prominent
position in Cleveland musical circles in his triple capacity of choral
conductor for the Cleveland Orchestra and operatic organization, head
of the Opera Department of The Cleveland Institute of Music, and con-
{11}
OVERTONES
ductor of certain independent choral groups. This is Boris Goldovsky,
who has commuted to Philadelphia to carry on his duties as assistant
conductor of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and vocal coach at The
Curtis Institute. In Cleveland Mr. Goldovsky has been busy this season
with the Orchestra's performances of "Tannhauser" and "Elektra",
and two important orchestral and choral works, Verdi's "Manzoni"
Requiem and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. In May he is directing a
performance by students of The Cleveland Institute of Music of "The
Marriage of Figaro". In Philadelphia he conducted the two ballet
performances of Tschaikowsky's "The Sleeping Princess", given in
its entirety for the first time in the United States by the Philadelphia
Ballet, February 11th and 12th, at the Academy of Music, and a concert
by the Curtis Symphony Orchestra for the Philadelphia Forum April
15th. Because of his increasing activity in Cleveland, The Curtis
Institute has granted Mr. Goldovsky a leave of absence during the
coming year.
BORIS GOLDOVSKY
chorus master Cleveland Orchestra opera — conduc-
tor Clereland Philharmonic Chorus — conductor
Singers' Club of Cleveland — head Opera Depart-
ment Cleveland Institute of Music — assistant con-
ductor Curtis Symphony Orchestra — vocal coach
Curtis Institute of Music.
{73>
OVERTONES
ROSE BAMPTON
Metropolitan Opera Association
will lour Europe summer and early winter
APPEARING IN LONDON DURING THE POST-CORONATION SEASON
Miss Bamplon will be soloist June 24th, Mr. Cherkassky soloist June 22nd, with the London Symphony
Orchestra conducted by Dr. Artur Rodzinski, in Queens Hall
SHURA CHERKASSKY, Pianist
remaining in Europe another season
i 74 }
OVERTONES
NAD I A REI SEN BERG. Pianist
toured Europe January- April
JOSEPH LEVINE, Pianist
louring Europe (debut) as accompanist for
Madame Lea Luboshiitz, March-May
GEN I A ROBINOR, Pianist
toured Europe (debut) and gave two concerts
in New York City, with Dr. Louis Bailly,
January- April
{75>
H^e Am 'J-Lat . . .
(News of Graduates)
Helen Jepson is to sing "La Traviata", and Charlotte Symons
"Gretel" in "Hansel und Gretel", with the Chicago City Opera
Company in the season opening October 30th, according to the Opera
Company's announcement.
Lucie Stern, pianist, is booked for a tour in February 1938 of the
southwest and middle west similar to the one she made this year, and
expects to tour Europe again next autumn.
Rose Bampton, mezzo-soprano, Benjamin de Loache, baritone, and
Grace Castagnetta, pianist, have given ^Town Hall (New York City)
recitals.
Jeanne Behrend appeared with Alexander Kelberine in performances
of Harl McDonald's new Two-Piano Concerto, dedicated to Miss
Behrend and Mr. Kelberine, by Dr. Leopold Stokowski and the Phila-
delphia Orchestra in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York, in April.
Maryjane Mayhew Barton is the director of the Philadelphia Music
Club Harp Ensemble.
Henri Temianka, violinist, has created the Temianka Chamber
Orchestra, in London.
John Bitter has founded a chamber music society in Jacksonville,
Florida, where he conducts the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra.
Victor Gottlieb, 'cello of the Coolidge Quartet, has appeared with
William Kroll, violinist, and Frank Sheridan, pianist, as a trio.
Fiorenzo Tasso, tenor, sang five performances of "Siegmund" ("Die
Walkiire") at the Teatro Comunale, Bologna, under Maestro Del
Campo, and appeared in "Parsifal" performed at the Teatro Reale,
Roma, under Tulio Serafin.
Jorge Bolet, pianist, will have a New York debut recital in the sea-
son of 1937-38 by virtue of having won one of the Naumberg awards.
Roland Leich, who is instructor in music at Dartmouth College,
has won the first prize in this year's competition under the Joseph H.
'Other New York recitals in the season just ending were announced in Overtones, Vol. VII, No. 1,
p. 29.
{ 76 >
OVERTONES
Beams award for musical composition, for his String Quartet in D flat.
Mr. Leich also received a Beams prize in 1933-
Eudice Shapiro has won the first prize in the violin division of
this spring's National Federation of Music Clubs "Young Artists"
competition.
Ralph Berkowitz has had some transcriptions for two pianos
accepted for publication: "Requiebros", Cassado (Schott, Mainz);
"Short Story", Gershwin (Associated Music Publishers, New York);
Allegro in G minor. Bach, Adagio in C minor, Haydn, and "Les
Papillons", Couperin (Elkan-Vogel, Philadelphia).
Agnes Davis, soprano, has been engaged by the Metropolitan
Opera Association, New York, for its spring season. She will make her
debut May 19th as "Elsa" in "Lohengrin".
Records of "Amelia al Ballo" (Gian Carlo Menotti) have been
made, by the cast of the world premiere and the Curtis Symphony
Orchestra, with Mr. Sylvan Levin conducting, using the recording
equipment of The Curtis Institute.
in}
c=^t?/«^ c^^dduLCH^ to tlic y^^taan in (^^a^intit ^^/-raU
T
by ALEXANDER McCURDY, MUS. D.
THE Casimir Hall Organ was given to The Curtis Institute of Music
by Mr. Cyrus H. K. Curtis in 1927, when the auditorium was being
erected. The greater part of the instrument was installed before the
hall was finished, and after all construction work was done the organ
was finished and voiced for the hall.
The installation is a remarkable one, all of the pipes being in rooms
between the ceiling and roof. Many of the larger pipes had to be hoisted
into place just after the steel work of the building was completed. Two
sets of 16-foot pipes had to be put on their backs just above the ceiling.
Every available space between ceiling and roof is taken up with mech-
anism and pipes.
The organ is a four-manual Aeolian, with about fifty ranks of pipes
and about sixty stops, in six sections: Choir, Great, Swell, Solo, Echo,
and Pedal. During the coming summer the organ will receive some
important additions.
When in the spring of 1937 Mrs. Bok presented the Wyncote home
of her father, bequeathed her by his will, to Cheltenham Township,
one section of Mr. Curtis's 'organ still remained in the house. This
was the Echo division, of about fifteen ranks of pipes. Mrs. Bok asked
me to find a place for this, and, if possible, to find some way of incor-
porating it into the organ in Casimir Hall. Of course we wanted
it in Casimir Hall.
Here, however, I was immediately faced with three problems:
first, where to put the mechanism and pipes; second, how to use another
Echo organ when we already had one; third, how to control another
division from the present console. Upon the solution of the first hung
the whole question of our having or not having the additional pipes.
^The major part of the organ was given by Mrs. Bok to Old Christ Church, Philadelphia, in 1935. — Ed.
i 78 >
OVERTONES
With the help of Mr. Douglas G. Braik, associate architect with
the late Mr. Horace Wells Sellers for Casimir Hall, the first problem
was solved. It had been at once apparent that not one square inch of
available space existed in the present building. There is no ground
around Casimir Hall nor any of the buildings of The Curtis Institute.
However, a space exists between the walls of Casimir Hall and those
of the main building, and miraculously it is just large enough, by
careful planning, to house our equipment. A room will be built in this
space, necessarily irregular in shape, conforming to the outlines of the
walls and corners of the two buildings, with a length of about fifteen
feet overall, a width varying from roughly six feet to roughly eight,
and (fortunately) adequate height. The room will be sound-proof,
like Casimir Hall, and will have a large opening, over which some sort
of screen will be placed, for emitting the sound, directly into the hall.
Mr. G. Donald Harrison, Technical Director of the Aeolian-Skinner
Organ Company, and I now tackled the other two problems. We de-
vised a plan of revoicing the Echo organ from Mr. Curtis 's home,
making some additions, and having what is called a Positiv organ.
This new division will be voiced on very low pressure, along classical
lines, being purely an ensemble section, completely unenclosed. It
will be extremely valuable for playing all contrapuntal music, espe-
cially Bach and his forerunners.
There being no practical way to control a Positiv organ from the
present console, it was evident that there would have to be a new
console, so we have chosen a five-manual English type, draw-knob,
remote control, movable console to take care of the present instrument
and all of the additions. The new console will have all of the mechan-
ical helps possible. All manual pistons will be double-touch, and of
course adjustable, the second touch bringing on a suitable pedal.
When the stage of Casimir Hall needs to be clear, we shall, by means
of a junction board, be able to disconnect the console, put it on the
elevator, and take it to the storeroom, in the same way that pianos
are now taken to and from the stage of Casimir Hall. The present con-
sole will be retained and kept intact so that it can be used at times
when it is not convenient to have the larger console in the hall.
It had been a great disappointment to Mr. Curtis, Dr. Lynnwood
{19}
OVERTONES
Farnam (then instructor of organ at The Curtis Institute), and the
Aeolian Company, in building the organ, that no place could be found
for even a few notes of a 32-foot stop. Our new room will provide the
necessary space and height and we shall have a new 32-foot reed and
a new 16-foot reed, both to be played from the Pedal organ.
It is expected that the new room will be constructed and all work
on the organ done in time for the opening of the Institute next autumn.
The students and I can scarcely wait to get our hands and feet on the
new console and play the "new" organ.
The Organ Department of The Curtis Institute is cooperating
with St. James's Church (Philadelphia) and the Episcopal Academy
(Merion, Pennsylvania) in establishing a choir school for boys to be
under the direction of Dr. Alexander McCurdy. Plans have been worked
out by the Reverend John Mockridge, Rector of St. James's Church,
Mr. Greville Haslam, Headmaster of the Episcopal Academy, and Dr.
McCurdy, Curtis Institute instructor of organ, for the formation of a
boy choir for St. James's Church whose choristers will receive scholar-
ships at the Episcopal Academy. A department of music is to be insti-
tuted at the Episcopal Academy, which Dr. McCurdy will head. These
students of the Academy forming the choir of St. James's Church will
have daily rehearsals with Dr. McCurdy.
Preparations for the development of the choir school already are
under way. Richard Purvis, Cyrus Curtis Organ Scholarship student
in The Curtis Institute, becomes organist and assistant choirmaster of
St. James's Church June 1st. The Curtis Institute will send Mr. Purvis
to England during the summer for a two-months' pilgrimage of the
famous old cathedrals and choir schools of that country.
It is expected that the choir school will begin functioning in
September.
{ 80 >
LJi^fcta 4A
tenture^
A PRiL 1, 1937, was a date of considerable importance to The Curtis
f\. Institute. On the evening of that day the first opera to be com-
posed by a Curtis Institute graduate was performed for the first time
anywhere. "Amelia al Ballo" was composed, words and music, by
Gian Carlo Menotti, who studied at The Curtis Institute with Mr.
Rosario Scalero. It was the pleasure of The Curtis Institute to premiere
this work.
The performance was given in the Academy of Music, Philadelphia.
The full program of the evening consisted of another premiere, the
American, of Darius Milhaud's "Le Pauvre Matelot", followed by the
world premiere of "Amelia al Ballo". The two one-act operas, the
one a tragedy, the other bufja, were sung in English.
The operas were given with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. Mr.
Fritz Reiner was musical director, Dr. Ernst Joseph Maria Lert stage
director, Mr. Boris Goldovsky assistant conductor, and Mr. Sylvan
Levin chorus master. The principals were: for "The Poor Sailor" —
Anna Leskaya (the wife), Tritz Krueger (the sailor), ^Leonard Treash
(his father-in-law), and Percival Dove (his friend); for "Amelia Goes
to the Ball" — Margaret Daum (Amelia), Conrad Mayo (her husband),
William Martin (her lover), -Edwina Eustis (her friend), ^Leonard
Treash (police officer), Wilburta Horn (the cook) and ^Charlotte
Daniels (the maid). The performance was in benefit of the Philadel-
phia Musicians' Relief Fund.
A reception, given in the Common Room of The Curtis Institute,
followed the performance.
A second performance of these operas was given on Friday evening,
April 9th, at the Lyric Theatre in Baltimore, with ^Selma Amansky
singing the role of the wife of "The Poor Sailor" and the cast other-
wise, for the Milhaud opera, being the original one; for "Amelia Goes
^Student of The Curtis Institute.
^Graduate of The Curtis Institute.
{ 81 >
OVERTONES
to the Ball" there was a student cast, with two exceptions (William
Martin again singing the role of the lover and Leonard Treash that
of the police officer): Florence Kirk (Amelia), Ellwood Hawkins (her
husband), Elsie MacFarlane (her friend), Wilburta Horn and Charlotte
Daniels (the cook and the maid) as in the original cast. The audience
was assembled by invitation.
The operas were performed in New York, for the first time in that
city, with the original casts, on Sunday evening, April 11th, at the
New Amsterdam Theatre. The performance honored the seventieth
birthday of Miss Lillian D. Wald, the proceeds going to the Music
School of the Henry Street Settlement.
On Sunday afternoon. May 2nd, with Mr. Sylvan Levin conducting
and the ^original cast, excerpts from "Amelia al Ballo" were broadcast
from Casimir Hall over the CBS network, this being "Amelia's"
radio debut.
FRITZ REINER and GUN CARLO MENOTTI
discuss the score of "Amelia al Ballo"
^Elsie MacFarlane substituted for Edwina Eustis as the friend.
•f 82 >
Guest Recital
The Russian two-piano recitalists, Vitya Vronsky and Victor Babin,
gave a recital in Casimir Hall on Monday evening, February 8th, at
the invitation of Dr. Hofmann. The program was that prepared for
their American debut in Town Hall the following Sunday afternoon:
Schumann's Andante and Variations, Opus 46, Debussy's "En blanc et
noir", Rachmaninoff's Second Suite, Opus 17, and Barcarolle, Opus 5,
and the Polovetzkian Dances from "Prince Igor" as transcribed by Mr.
Babin, the last performed by permission of Mr. M. P. Belaieff.
Lecture
The Philadelphia violin-maker, Mr. William Moennig, lectured on
the making of string instruments at The Curtis Institute in February.
Mr. Moennig's talk, an informal discussion, was repeated four times
during the month. Every student of string instruments attended.
Lecture-Recital
Mr. Felix Labunski, Warsaw composer, lecturer, and critic, deliv-
ered a talk on "Four Centuries of Polish Chamber Music" on Wednesday
evening. May 5th, in Casimir Hall. Besides phonograph records used
by Mr. Labunski, the lecture was illustrated by a program of Polish
chamber music played by students under Dr. Louis Bailly; the Szar-
zynski Sonata for two violins and organ, played by Marian Head and
Julius Schulman, violins, and Claribel Gegenheimer, organ; the first
movement of the Zarebski piano quintet, played by Jorge Bolet,
piano, Marian Head and Julius Schulman, violins, David Schwartz,
viola, and Leonard Rose, 'cello; and the final movement of the lec-
turer's own String Quartet No. i, composed in 1934, played by Marian
Head and Julius Schulman, violins, David Schwartz, viola, and
Leonard Rose, violoncello.
i 83 >
c
aiitntettcentem
The fourth Commencement will be held on Tuesday afternoon.
May 18th, with the following ^students being graduated:
(to receive the Diploma of The Curtis Institute of Music) —
Julius Baker, in Flute
Carl Buchman, in Conducting
Elvin Clearfield, in Clarinet
James Fairweather, in Trumpet
^Joseph Levine, in Conducting
Samuel Mayes, in Violoncello
Edward O'Gorman, in Conducting
Bernard Portnoy, in Clarinet
Ezra Rachlin, in Piano and Conducting
Jules Seder, in Bassoon
David Schwartz, in Viola
Zadel Skolovsky, in Piano and Conducting
Hugo Weisgall, in Conducting
(to receive the Degree Bachelor of Music) —
Marjorie Call, in Harp
^Marjorie Tyre, in Harp
The usual reception and tea dance will follow the exercises which
are held in Casimir Hall.
'List subject to correction.
^Mus. Bac. in Piano, 1936.
^Diploma, 1936.
{ 84 >
<z^tudent <:=:^ctivu
T
ce^
Casimir Hall
HE second student concert of the year was given by students of
organ with Dr. Alexander McCurdy on Tuesday evening, February
9th. Walter Baker played the Bach Fantasy and Fugue in G minor, the
Spinning Song from Marcel Dupre's Suite Bretonne, and Tournemire's
Paraphrase-Carillon; Richard Purvis, the Cantabile and Scherzo from
Vierne's Symphony No. 2, and the Sortie from "Messe Basse" of the
same composer; and Claribel Gegenheimer, Schumann's Canon in B
minor, Sigfrid Karg-Elert's Choral-Improvisation: "O Gott, du from-
mer Gott", and Henri Mulct's Toccata; "Tu espetra" from "Esquisses
Byzantines".
On Tuesday evening, February 23d, Marjorie Call, harpist, played
her graduation recital. The program consisted of Mr. Salzedo's Varia-
tions on a Theme in Ancient Style, Palmgren's "May Night" (trans-
scribed by Florence Wightman), Debussy's "En bateau", two French
folk-songs "Et ron ron ron, petit patapon" and "Le bon petit roi
d'Yvetot" by Marcel Grand) any, the first performance anywhere of
Mr. Salzedo's ^"Scintillation" (dedicated to Miss Call), and Debussy's
"Danse Sacree" and "Danse Profane", with Mr. Salzedo at the piano.
Miss Call is graduating with the degree Bachelor of Music May 18th,
having studied with Mr. Carlos Salzedo.
Samuel Mayes, violoncellist, who became a member of the Phila-
delphia Orchestra at the beginning of the season just ended, played his
graduation recital on Monday evening, March 29th. His program was:
Toccata (Frescobaldi-Cassado), Sicilienne (Paradis-Dushkin), Vivace
(Senaille-Salmon), Beethoven's Seven Variations on a Theme from
Mozart's "The Magic Flute", Johann Sebastian Bach's Suite in C
major, No. 3, for violoncello alone, Beethoven's Sonata in A major,
Op. 69, the Prayer from Bloch's "Jewish Life", Debussy's Menuet,
KDVERTONES, Vol. VII, No. 1, p. 11.
{ 85 >
OVERTONES
and Rondo (Weber-Piatigorsky). Ralph Berkowitz, graduate 1935 in
accompanying, was at the piano. Mr. Mayes has been a student with
Mr. Felix Salmond, and will receive The Curtis Institute diploma May
18th.
The third student concert was given on Sunday evening, April 4th,
by students of woodwind ensemble under Mr. Marcel Tabuteau. Jorge
Bolet, pianist, graduate under Mr. David Saperton, assisted in
the program, appearing in the Beethoven Quintet in E flat major,
Op. 16, and Joseph Jongen's Rhapsodic. Other works performed
were the Aubade of Paul de Wailly, Igor Strawinsky's Pastorale,
Frederick Jacobi's Scherzo (for flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, and
bassoon), which had its first performance on that evening, and Gabriel
Pierne's "Pastorale variee dans le style ancien". Op. 30. Mr. Jacobi
was in the audience. The woodwind students participating were
Albert Tipton, George Morey, and Julius Baker, flutes; Harry Schul-
man, oboe; Bernard Portnoy and William McCormick, clarinets; Her-
bert Pierson and Mason Jones, French horns; Martin Fleisher, English
horn; Richard Barron and Manuel Zegler, bassoons; and Arthur
Statter, trumpet.
On Sunday evening, April 18th, students of Mr. Alexander Hilsberg
in violin gave a concert. Edward Matyi played one movement of
Niccolo Paganini's Concerto No. 1 in D major. Op. 6; Kurt Polnarioff,
Henri Vieuxtemps's Concerto No. 4 in D minor. Op. 31; Isidore Gral-
nick, Camille Saint-Saens's Concerto No. 3 in B minor. Op. 61; and
David Frisina, graduate under Mr. Hilsberg, and Kurt Polnarioff, the
Suite of Moritz Moszkowski for two violins and piano, Op. 71.
Eugene Helmer, graduate in accompanying under Mr. Harry Kaufman,
was at the piano for the entire program.
Piano students with Mr. David Saperton gave the fifth student
concert on Monday evening, April 19th. Abbey Simon opened the
program with the Fantasy and Fugue in G minor, Bach-Liszt, after
which Bessie Singer played the first movement from Beethoven's
Sonata in D minor. Op. 31, No. 2, and Chopin's Nocturne in E minor.
Op. 72, No. 1, and Scherzo in B flat minor. Op. 31. Constance Russell
then played Cesar Franck's Prelude, Choral and Fugue, and Manuel
de Falla's "Andaluza". Debussy's "Arabesque", in E, three move-
{ 86 >
OVERTONES
ments of Beethoven's Sonata in A, Op. 2, No. 2, and Mr. Saperton's
composition "Zephyr" were performed by Robert Cornman. Abbey
Simon played "Liebesleid", Kreisler-Rachmaninoff, and "Alborado del
gracioso", Maurice Ravel. Sidney Finkelstein brought the program
to a close with the Chopin Barcarole in F sharp, Op. 60, Debussy's
"Poissons d'Or", and the waltz from the ballet "Naila", Delibes-
Dohnanyi.
As we go to press, student concerts for May are scheduled as
follows: Monday evening May 3d — Annette Elkanova, Barbara
Elliott, Phyllis Moss, Gary Graffman, and Sol Kaplan, students of
piano with Madame Isabelle Vengerova; Thursday evening. May 6th
— Edna Haddock, Florence Kirk, Vera Resnikoff, Lester Englander,
William Home, and Fritz Krueger, students of voice with Mr. Emilio
de Gogorza; Friday evening. May 7th — Elza Reed, Julius Schulman,
Noah Bielski, and Frederick Vogelgesang, students of violin with
Mr. Efrem Zimbalist; Monday evening. May 10th — Leonard Rose,
student of violoncello with Mr. Felix Salmond; on Monday evening,
May 17th, the graduation recital of Jeanette Weinstein, who has been
a student of piano with Mr. David Saperton (Miss Weinstein received
the diploma of The Curtis Institute in 1936); and Wednesday eve-
ning. May 19th — George Brown, Leonard Frantz, Jules Salkin, David
Schwartz, and Samuel Singer, students of viola with Dr. Louis Bailly.
Kadio
The eighth annual Curtis Institute series of radio concerts has
consisted of twenty-nine forty-five-minute broadcasts on Wednesday
afternoons during the school year. All departments of the school
were represented and several graduates and faculty members per-
formed as "guests".
The December 30th program was given by Jane Shoaf and Ellwood
Hawkins, students of the vocal and operatic departments, with Mr.
Sylvan Levin, graduate of the Institute and instructor in vocal reper-
toire, at the piano.
Students of chamber music with Dr. Louis Bailly gave the January
6th concert, playing in quintet, trio, and chamber orchestra groups.
In this concert Karl Friedrich Abel's Symphony in D, Op. 7, No. 3,
OVERTONES
for oboe, bassoon, and strings, had its first performance, conducted
by Dr. Bailly.
The January 13th program was given by Ralph SchaefFer, student
of violin with Madame Lea Luboshutz, and William Home, student
of voice with Mr. Emilio de Gogorza. The accompanists at the piano
were Mr. Eugene Helmer and Miss Elizabeth Westmoreland, both
graduates of the Institute, Miss Westmoreland also an instructor of
vocal repertoire.
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Boris Goldovsky conducting,
gave the concert of January 20th, in which Philip Frank, graduate in
violin under Mr. Efrem Zimbalist was guest soloist.
The Curtis Institute cooperated in the celebration of the second
annual Edward MacDowell radio festival by having its concert of
January 27th a MacDowell program. Lester Englander, baritone
student with Mr. Emilio de Gogorza, and Mr. Sylvan Levin gave the
performance, Mr. Levin playing the "Tragica" Sonata.
The February 3d program was given by Florence Kirk, soprano,
and Leonard Treash, bass-baritone, student and graduate respectively
under Mr. Emilio de Gogorza. Oscar Eiermann, student of accom-
panying with Mr. Harry Kaufman, was at the piano.
Sol Kaplan, piano student with Madame Isabelle Vengerova, and
Oskar Shumsky, graduate in violin under Mr. Efrem Zimbalist, gave
the program of February 10th. Mr. Shumsky was accompanied at
the piano by Ethel Evans, student with Mr. Harry Kaufman.
Students in woodwind ensemble under Mr. Marcel Tabuteau
gave the concert of February 17th, with Jorge Bolet, graduate pianist
under Mr. David Saperton, assisting in one number of the program.
An interesting feature was the performance of Mr. William Strasser's
transcription for woodwinds of Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude
and Fugue in C major for organ. Mr. Strasser is a member of the
Institute staff.
Sidney Finkelstein, piano student with Mr. David Saperton, and
Julius Schulman, violin student with Mr. Efrem Zimbalist, gave the
program of February 24th. The piano accompanist was Ethel Evans,
student with Mr. Harry Kaufman.
Samuel Mayes, student of violoncello with Mr. Felix Salmond,
^; 88 >
OVERTONES
and William Home, tenor, student with Mr. Emilio de Gogorza,
gave the program of March 3d. The accompanists were Ralph Berk-
owitz, graduate, and Miss Westmoreland.
Two younger students gave the program of March 10th, Annette
Elkanova, student of piano with Madame Isabelle Vengerova, and
Rafael Druian, student of violin with Madame Lea Luboshutz. Ethel
Evans at the piano.
Daniel Healy, tenor, was a guest in the March 17th program,
singing, appropriately, some Irish airs. When Mr. Healy (of Irish
blood) was a student at The Curtis Institute, the Institute sent him
to Ireland for the purpose of studying, on native soil, the folksongs
of the gallant Gaelic people. Upon his return, Mr. Healy wrote of
some of his unique experiences for Overtones, his article appearing in
the October 1931 issue (Vol. Ill, No. 1), under the title "An Irish
Music Fest" . Frederick Vogelgesang, student of violin with Mr. Efrem
Zimbalist, gave the rest of the program. The accompanists were
Ethel Evans and Sarah Lewis, the latter a student of the Institute
of Mr. Healy's day.
Three young people who during their student days at The Curtis
Institute have associated themselves frequently as collaborators in
performances, Marjorie Call and Reinhardt Elster, harpists, students
with Mr. Salzedo, and Leonard Rose, 'cellist, student with Mr.
Salmond, gave the concert of March 24th. The program included works
played by two harps, works for harp and 'cello, and a work for two
harps and 'cello, the last being five popular Spanish songs of de Falla
played for the first time on the air. Mr. Salzedo's composition "Scin-
tillation" also had its first radio performance, by Miss Call.
On March 31st Abbey Simon, piano student with Mr. David
Saperton, and Noah Bielski, violin student with Mr. Efrem Zimbalist,
gave the program, Louis Shub, student of accompanying with Mr.
Harry Kaufman, at the piano.
Edna Haddock, soprano, student with Mr. Emilio de Gogorza,
and Phyllis Moss, piano student with Madame Isabelle Vengerova,
gave the April 7th program. Mr. Eugene Helmer was accompanist.
The April 14th program was operatic, consisting of duets, recita-
tives, a soprano solo, and quartets from the first and second acts
i 89 >
OVERTONES
of "Martha" (von Flotow), sung in English by Jane Shoaf as
"Martha", Elsie MacFarlane as "Nancy", Leonard Treash, graduate,
as "Plunkett", and Fritz Krueger as "Lionel", with Mr. Sylvan
Levin playing piano accompaniment. Miss Shoaf, Miss MacFarlane,
and Mr. Krueger study operatic acting with Dr. Ernst Lert.
The April 21st concert programmed Moszkowski's Suite for two
violins and piano, in G minor. Op. 71, played by David Frisina,
violinist, graduate under Mr. Alexander Hilsberg, Kurt PolnariofF,
violin student with Mr. Hilsberg, and Vladimir Sokoloff, graduate
accompanist, and songs sung by Vera Resnikoff, student with Mr.
Emilio de Gogorza.
The April 28th concert, closing the eighth Curtis Institute radio
season, was something of a gala affair. Benjamin de Loache, baritone
(graduate of the Institute), Nadia Reisenberg, pianist (graduate and
junior member of the faculty), and Mr. Felix Salmond, violoncellist
(member of the faculty) gave the program. Mr. de Loache opened the
program, singing two songs by Hugo Wolf: "Auf dem griinen Balkon"
and "Auf ein altis Bild", and two by Manuel de Falla separated by
one by Mr. Placido de Montoliu, of the faculty: "El pano moruna",
"Caricion de cuna", and "Seguidille". Miss Reisenberg and Mr.
Salmond then played Sonata in E minor. Op. 38, by Johannes Brahms.
Mr. de Loache again came to the microphone and sang an air from
Milton's "Comus" by Dr. Thomas Arne, Samuel Barber's "Beggar's
Song", Randall Thompson's "Velvet Shoes", and a new song of John
Duke, "Twentieth Century", from manuscript. Mr. Sylvan Levin
was accompanist for Mr. de Loache.
These Curtis Institute radio concerts all were identified on the air
by Dr. Josef Hofmann's Berceuse, played by graduates or students.
Concert Course
The Concert Course, which booked thirty concerts for the season
at the beginning of the school year, was swollen to forty-nine before
the school year was over. Nineteen concerts given between October
1st and the end of December were reported in our January number.
There have been some interesting programs and various soloists and
groups have been in demand.
{ 90 >
OVERTONES
^Eudice Shapiro, violinist, ^Leonard Treash, bass-baritone, ^Wil-
liam Harms, pianist, and Annette Elkanova, pianist, have given
recitals in this course. Three trios have been popular, one a trio of
violin, violoncello and piano in w^hich Leonard Rose and Samuel
Mayes have alternated as the 'cello, Annette Elkanova and Sol Kaplan
taking turns as the piano, with Frederick Vogelgesang as the violin;
a second trio of two harps and a 'cello consisting of Marjorie Call
and Reinhardt Elster, harps, and Leonard Rose, 'cello; the third trio
a violin, viola and flute combination known as the Trio Classique,
composed of ^Eudice Shapiro, ^Virginia Majewski, and ^Ardelle
Hookins. These trios usually give programs of solos for each instru-
ment, duets, and trios. Another interesting combination has been
that of voice and piano with flute obbligato, June Winters, soprano,
Eugene Bossart, piano accompanist, and Burnette Atkinson, flute,
having appeared in this way.
Operatic programs also are popular. Wolf-Ferrari's "Secret of
Suzanne" has been given three times in this course, with Jane Shoaf,
Lester Englander, and William Home. On two occasions the little
opera had two-piano accompaniment played by ^Joseph Levine and
^Elizabeth Westmoreland, and by Ethel Evans and Miss Westmoreland.
The other performance was given with piano accompaniment by Mr.
'Eugene Helmer. The "spinning scene" from the second act of
"Martha" was given also, by 'Charlotte Daniels, Jane Shoaf, Fritz
Krueger, and 'Leonard Treash, with Miss Westmoreland playing the
piano accompaniment. These operatic programs are given with
costumes and scenery.
Another feature of the Concert Course has been the courses that
have developed within the Curtis Institute Concert Course. There have
been two such concert courses, one a series given at The Barclay in
Philadelphia, the other a series given in private homes of patrons of
The Barclay series.
The Curtis Syinphony Orchestra
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra played the Tschaikowsky ballet
'Graduate of The Curtis Institute.
{ 91 >
OVERTONES
"The Sleeping Princess" for the two performances, without cuts, given
by the Philadelphia Ballet Company in the Academy of Music, Phila-
delphia, on February 11th and 12th. The February 11th performance,
for the Philadelphia Forum, was the American premiere, the date hav-
ing been changed from the 8th as
originally announced. Mr. Boris
Goldovsky, assistant conductor of
the Orchestra, conducted the
performances.
The Orchestra, again conducted
by Mr. Goldovsky, gave a concert
for the Philadelphia Forum in the
Academy of Music on April 15th.
Oskar Shumsky, violinist, doing
post-graduate work with Mr. Efrem
Zimbalist at The Curtis Institute,
was soloist. The program consisted
of Carl Goldmark's Overture "Im
Friihling' ' , the Nocturne and Scherzo
from "A Midsummer Night's
OSKAR SHUMSKY, non>us: Dteam", Felix Mendelssohn-Bar-
tholdy, the Saint-Saens Concerto No. 3, in B minor, in which Mr.
Shumsky appeared, the Waltz Sequences from the third act of
"Der Rosenkavalier" of Richard Strauss, and Les Preludes of Franz
Liszt.
These were professional engagements for the Orchestra. As else-
where recounted, the Orchestra also played the orchestral parts of
"Le Pauvre Matelot" and "Amelia al Ballo" given under the auspices
of The Curtis Institute.
Chamber Music
The two concerts of chamber music which are to be given in the
Philadelphia Museum of Art and in Town Hall, New York City, under
Dr. Louis Bailly, have been postponed from April 18th and 26th to
November 21st and 22nd.
{ 92 >
OVERTONES
Professional Engagements
Two students, Fritz Krueger, tenor, and Elsie MacFarlane, con-
tralto, were engaged by the Philadelphia Orchestra for the perform-
ances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, conducted by Mr. Eugene
Ormandy, March 25th and 27th. Agnes Davis, graduate, was the
soprano soloist. Eugene Loewenthal, graduate, sang the baritone part.
Ezra Rachlin, pianist, being graduated May 18th, played recitals in
Danbury, Connecticut; Auburn, New York, and Oil City and Union-
town, Pennsylvania, during the winter.
Marjorie Tyre, graduate harpist, who is receiving her Bachelor of
Music degree May 18th and who is a member of the Philadelphia
Orchestra, Reinhardt Elster, harpist, and Leonard Rose, 'cellist, gave
a concert at the International Students' House, in Philadelphia, Janu-
ary 21st.
Leonard Rose, 'cellist, and Bernard Portnoy, clarinetist, played
the Haydn Concerto and the Mozart A major Concerto respectively
with the Youth Symphony Orchestra at a concert given February 17th
in the Fleischer Auditorium, Philadelphia, one of the musical events
organized as an annual series by a group of young people under the
auspices of the Y. M. and Y. W. H. A. of Philadelphia.
Fritz Krueger, tenor, was the music master in a performance of
Pergolesi's "The Music Master" given under the auspices of the Italo-
American Philharmonic Orchestra in the ballroom of the Stephen Girard
Hotel, Philadelphia, February 7th, conducted by Mr. Gueglielmo
Sabatini.
Marjorie Call, harpist, gave two programs for the Teachers Asso-
ciation in Wilmington, Delaware, at the Wilmington High School
February 8th and at the Warner Junior High School March 15th. She
has been engaged by Mr. Fabien Sevitzky for the Indianapolis Sym-
phony Orchestra.
Sidney Finkelstein, pianist, gave a recital for the New Orleans
Section of the Council of Jewish Women in the Gold Room of the
Roosevelt Hotel, New Orleans, January 21st.
Barbara Thorne, soprano, and Elsie MacFarlane, contralto, have
been soloists at the Second Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, in per-
<93>
OV E RT O N E S
formances of the Brahms Requiem, the Rossini "Stabat Mater", and
the Bach St. Matthew Passion, conducted by Dr. Alexander McCurdy.
Miss Thorne and Miss MacFarlane, and Lester Englander, baritone,
have been soloists with Walter Baker, organist, at the First Baptist
Church, Philadelphia.
Gary GrafFman and Barbara Elliott, pianists, were soloists in the
Philadelphia Chamber String Simfonietta children's concert conducted
by Mr. Fabien Sevitzky in the Bellevue-Stratford ballroom, Phil-
adelphia, April loth. These are two of the younger students of The
Curtis Institute.
Jane Shoaf, soprano, Elsie MacFarlane, contralto, William Home,
tenor, and Lester Englander, baritone, were soloists with the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania Choral Society and an orchestra selected from
the Curtis Symphony in a concert conducted by Dr. Harl McDonald in
Irvine Auditorium, Philadelphia, May 4th.
Jules Baker, flute, and David Schwartz, viola, have been engaged
by Dr. Artur Rodzinski for the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, and
Wallace McManus, harp, by the Band of the United States Naval
Academy at Annapolis.
Students are interested in amateur photography and have formed
a camera club, doing all the work of producing pictures, including
the developing and printing, themselves. The club gave its first ex-
hibition in May. The photographs, which included still life and por-
traits, besides views of country, city, and sea, showed imagination
and a flair for pictorial composition and design. Jorge Bolet, Sidney
Finkelstein, Sol Kaplan, William Klenz, Ezra Rachlin, Jules Salkin,
and Oskar Shumsky exhibited, besides Mrs. Mary Bok, who is an
honorary member.
{ 94 >
J-lhtatu y Vctc^
1
Recent additions (gifts) to the Curtis Institute Library:
First Editions
Bach, Johann Sebastian. Brandenburg Concert! numbers 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Leipzig:
Peters (1850). With facsimile of the original dedication in Bach's autograph.
Second edition of the Second Concerto, London: Novello, completing the set.
The scores.
Beethoven, Ludwig Van. Pianoforte Sonata, C Major, Op. 53- Vienna: Bureau des
Arts et d'Industrie (1805). The famous "'Waldstein" Sonata.
Beethoven, Ludwig Van. String Quartet, C Sharp Minor, Op. 131- Mainz: Schott
(1827). The four parts.
Beethoven, Ludwig Van. Ninth Symphony. Mainz: Schott (1826). The parts.
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. Les Dix Principaux Quatuors, avec la Fugue. Offenbach
am Main: Jean Andre (about 1810). First collected edition and first edition of the
scores. The Quartets are Kochel numbers 387, 421, 458, 428, 464, 465, 575, 590,
589, and 499; the Fugue K. 546.
Schubert, Franz. Sieben Gesange aus Walter Scott's Fraulein vora See. Vienna:
Artaria (1826). Including the famous Ave Maria. Piano accompaniment.
Strauss, Johann. Die Fledermaus. Vienna: Schreiber (1874). Piano-vocal score.
TscHAiKowsKY, Peter Ilitch. Cassc-Noisctte Suite. Moscow: Jurgenson (1892).
Orchestral score.
Verdi, Giuseppe. FalstafF. Milan, Rome, etc.: Ricordi (1893)- Piano-vocal score.
Wagner, Richard. Die Feen. Mannheim: Heckel (1888?). Piano-vocal score. The first
production of this opera was given in 1888 at Munich, forming the basis of the
approximate date of this publication. (The Library also owns the 'orchestral
score, from the privately printed edition for King Ludwig.)
Wagner, Richard. Der Ring des Nibelungen. Mainz: Schott (1873-1876). This set
comes from the library of Camille Saint-Saens and bears his monogram stamped
in gold on the front cover of each of the four volumes. Orchestral scores.
•OVERTONES, \^ol. VI, p. 64.
<95>
OVE RT O N E S
INDEX TO VOLUME VII
"Amelia al Ballo": sketch of "Amelia" by Daria Cecchi — 56; sketch of stage setting (Oenslager) — 62;
article on Gian Carlo Menotti and — 57; premiere and some subsequent performances — 81; recorded — 77
Bailly, Mus.D., Louis: The Romance of 'Cello jz — 67
Bampton, Rose: appears in London, post-Coronation season; photograph — 74; European tour 1936 — 20
Barber, Samuel : concert of his works at Curtis Institute — 65; some performances of his works — 66; Symphony,
String Quartet premieres — 15, 16; photographs — 14, 26, 64
Bok, Mrs. Mary: photograph with Fritz Reiner — 24; honored by National Institute of Social Sciences — 63
Brahms, Johannes: photograph with Ernestine Schumann-Heink — 4
Braun, Edith Evans: Memories of Ernestine Schumann-Heink — 5; photograph — 8
Cafeteria : photograph — 46
Chcrkassky, Shura: appears in London, post-Coronation season; photograph — 74; begins European tour
summer 1936 — 20
Christmas Party — 45
Cleveland: former Curtis people now in; photograph — 72
Coming Events — 29
Commencement — 84
Connell, Horatio: Curtis Institute observes his passing — 19
Curtis String Quartet: European tour 1936 — 20; photograph with Samuel Barber — 14
Editorial — 12
European Tours (graduates, 1936) — 20
Faculty: "outside" activities— 21, 23, 69, 71; Casimir Hail~22, 69; new members— 23, 71
Goldovsky, Boris: activities; photograph — 73
Graduates: European tours 1936 — 20; news of — 15, 76
Henderson, W. J. : Josef Hofmann (poem) — 55
Hofmann, Mus.D., Josef : American debut; photograph— 54; Golden Jubilee— 53; poem by W.J. Henderson—
55; photograph — 52
Labunski, Felix: lecture — 83
Levine, Joseph: tours Europe spring 1937; photograph — 75
Library Notes — 95
McCurdy, Mus.D., Alexander: Some Additions to the Organ in Casimir Hall — 78; photograph — 43
Mapes, Gordon : The New Recording Department — 47
Memories of Ernestine Schumann-Heink: article by Edith Evans Braun — 5
-Menotti, Gian Carlo: article on— 57; premiere of "Amelia al Ballo"— 81; photographs— 26, 31, 59, 82
Mexican Impressions: article by Carlos Salzedo, Mus.D. — 9
Moennig, William: lecture — 83
Montagnana 'cello: story of, by Louis Bailly, Mus.D. — 67
Opera Premieres: "Le Pauvre Matelot," "Amelia al Ballo"— 81
Organ Department: activities of— 42; cooperates with St. James's Church, Episcopal Academy— 80
Organ : additions to (echo organ from Mr. Curtis's home brought to Institute); article by Alexander McCurdy,
Mus.D.— 78
Petina, Irra: South American opera — 26; photograph 27
Philadelphia Museum, concert in, by Curtis Symphony Orchestra— 40
Philadelphia Orchestra, Curtis Institute host to — 11
Recording Department, The New: article by Gordon Mapes — 47
Reiner, Fritz: photographs — 24, 82
Reisenberg, Nadia: tours Europe, winter, spring 1937; photograph — 75
Robinor, Genia: tours Europe, winter, spring 1937; photograph — 75
Romance of 'Cello jz, The: article by Louis Bailly, Mus.D.— 67
Salzedo, Mus.D., Carlos: Mexican Impressions — 9; photograph — 10
Schumann-Heink, Ernestine: article on, by Edith Evans Braun— 5; photographs— 4, 8
Shumsky, Oskar: European tour 1936—20; soloist with Curtis Symphony Orchestra; photograph —92
Social Activities — 45
Some Additions to the Organ in Casimir Hall: article by Alexander McCurdy, Mus.D.— 78
Student Activities : Casimir Hall— 32, 85; radio— 32, 87; Concert Course— 36, 90; Curtis Symphony Orchestra
— 40, 81, 91; professional— 41, 93; photography— 94
Summer Activities 1936 — 25
Vronsky-Babin: recital — 83
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